No one can predict exactly what European trade will look like in ten or twenty years. What we can do is make sure the connections are in place to help businesses respond to whatever comes next.

That means looking beyond the immediate demands on supply chains and investing for the long term. Ports and terminals need capacity to accommodate future growth, transport networks need to give businesses more options for moving their goods, and every part of the supply chain needs to become more efficient and sustainable.

For us, that thinking is shaping how we invest across Europe. By bringing together ports and terminals, inland logistics, warehousing, freight forwarding and multimodal transport, we are building an increasingly connected network designed to help our customers move goods more efficiently across Europe and beyond. 

Trade Needs Infrastructure That Can Keep Up

Trade can’t grow without the physical structure in place to support it. That's why we continue to invest in the physical assets at the heart of European supply chains, adding capacity where it’s needed and introducing technology that can help goods move more efficiently.

In the UK, for example, four new all-electric quay cranes have recently arrived across our terminals at London Gateway and Southampton. The new cranes will support growing import volumes to the UK, helping ensure our customers have access to the support they need as their business grow, and demonstrating our commitment to future-proofing Europe’s supply chains.

Resilient supply chains are also incumbent on investments beyond the gates of gateway ports that future-proof domestic connectivity and enable businesses to access new markets.

A port connected to rail, road, warehousing and inland logistics builds optionality into supply chains and gives businesses more ways to reach their customers. Combine that physical network with freight forwarding and supply chain expertise, and it becomes possible to make faster, smarter decisions about how goods should move. 

The Best Investments Solve More Than One Problem

Our investments to increase volume capacity at ports across Europe are built with the commercial realities of tomorrow in mind, but they also embrace the environmental realities of the future.

Our customers need supply chains that can support growth while helping them respond to changing expectations around emissions and environmental performance.  

Electrification, new technologies and more efficient ways of working can help increase productivity and reduce environmental impact at the same time. Decisions made today can determine how efficiently goods move and how effectively businesses can respond to change for years to come.

The question, then, isn't simply what investment costs today – it is what that investment makes possible tomorrow.

More Options Create More Adaptable Supply Chains

Even with the best planning, we can’t even begin to predict every disruption facing global trade. Businesses have had to navigate geopolitical uncertainty, changing consumer demand, extreme weather and disruption to established trade routes. The next challenge may be different again, so the answer is not to try to predict every eventuality but to create more options.

An integrated network can give businesses greater flexibility over how and where their goods move. If circumstances change, access to different ports, routes, modes of transport and logistics services can provide alternative ways to keep cargo moving. That's why our investments in ports and logistics infrastructure across Europe is built around improving connectivity for our customers. By bringing together gateways into Europe with inland transport, warehousing, freight forwarding and multimodal options, we can give customers more ways to design their supply chains around what their businesses actually need.

Ultimately, we cannot know exactly what the future of European trade will bring. We can only build the infrastructure, capacity and connections that give businesses more ways to respond to it.  

Find out more about our future-ready supply chain solutions.