The shipping platform

Location: London is the capital and principal port of the United Kingdom, on the River Thames, situated in SE England. General overview: The port of London is a combination of wet dock and riverside terminals that together handle more cargo than any other port in the UK, including shortsea and deepsea, containerised, Ro-Ro, general cargo, project cargo, liquid bulks and dry bulks. The port covers a vast area stretching 150km from the North Sea to Teddington Lock. Several of the larger docks and basins nearer the City of London are now only used for recreational craft. The Thames includes port areas of Barking, Canvey Island, Coryton, Dagenham, Erith, Gravesend, Grays, Greenwich, London Gateway (see separate entry), North Woodwich, Purfleet and Silvertown. Facilities are provided by one enclosed dock system at the Port of Tilbury, (see separate entry) and a large number of tidal river berths. Together they move more than 50,000,000t of freight a year and many of the constituent parts would qualify in terms of berths, equipment and traffic as medium sized ports in their own right. The port of Tilbury is, since privatisation, an autonomous port. Traffic figures: Approx 10,800 vessels, 48,100,000t of cargo and 846,000TEU handled annually. Load line zone: North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone II, Winter Nov 1 to Mar 31, Summer Apr 1 to Oct 31. Max size: Max draught 13.7m. Largest vessel handled: "Sovereign Maersk", container ship, LOA 347m, 8,000TEU. Part loaded tanker "Kirsten Maersk", 339,300DWT.