• The post you are reporting:
   
  Jacqui, your post appears to be contradictory. You say that this is one of the busiest ports in the world. That is no accident. It is because it is a Trust Port and all the profits have accordingly been continuously reinvested in the immense expansion which has made this possible. In a sense, we are getting this port for nothing, as the nation owns it and does not charge us a rental fee for the privilege. It has to be acknowledged that it is a curious arrangement and one that we are fortunate to have.
  
  Once it is privatised, the new owners will have to use these profits to pay the interest on the massive sum they will have invested, and will also need to provide a return for their shareholders. Any money for expansion can only come from raising the berthing fees charged to port users still higher. At what point the latter decide that operating from Dover is no longer tenable and the cross-channel, cruise and cargo trade moves elsewhere time will tell. Privatisation simply has to make the port more expensive to use as the infrastructure will no longer be provided free gratis. Whether this results in the port ceasing to grow, or even going into decline, we shall have to see.
  
  Regarding your point regarding MSC Cruises shifting to Southampton. The reason that we have this flourishing cruise traffic in the first place is that the Trust Port constructed two cruise terminals and won a lot of the traffic that previously would have used Southampton and other ports. Cruise companies will vary which ports to use dependent on the itineraries they choose to offer. MSC are running as many cruises southwards to Spain and Portugal next year as they are northwards to the Norwegian fjords and the Baltic. It is six of one and half a dozen of the other which port they choose to base their cruises from. The same applies to other operators and Dover may equally benefit from other companies transferring the other way.

Report Post

Your Name

Reason