Weekly Snapshot

This week, the world mourns the passing of Pope Francis, a leader known for his compassion, humility, and advocacy for peace and social justice and the BPA extends its sympathies. 

It’s been a busy week at the BPA as preparations ramp up for some key moments in the maritime calendar. Our Annual Lunch just around the corner, and work behind the scenes are in full swing to make it another memorable gathering for the industry as this year we head to the London Guildhall.

In the meantime Eileen travelled to the North east this week to see the Ports of Sunderland and Blyth and to meet up with the BPAs HR & Employment Group, for discussions around workforce strategy and collaboration.

Also we were pleased to welcome the UK Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP to Park Street for the BPA Council meeting, where members had the opportunity to engage on key topics around ports and the energy agenda. This followed a business leaders meeting Richard joined with the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and the Chief Secretary to Treasury Darren Jones on the Spending review, where transport, infrastructure and planning improvements were discussed.

Separately we had a good engagement session with the RYA this morning and are looking forward to an online briefing of the newly named Ports & Marine Facilities Safety Code with ABPmer and Marico Marine on Monday. 

In addition, Richard and I attended the London International Shipping Week (LISW) briefing reception, helping to ensure ports are well represented as planning for LISW2025 gets underway ahead of September.

Separately we were also excited to announce that bookings are now open for our annual conference. This will be hosted in the  The Humber – Energy Estuary, set in a region at the forefront of the UK’s energy transition and this year the conference is jointly hosted by Associated British Ports and Port of Grimsby East. We are also delighted to be working with Freshwater in organising this year's conference. See further details about #BPA2025 in the section below.

Finally the word on the grapevine (or more accurately, George doing some Googling and giving us an inhouse office weather report) is that a mini-heatwave is on the way! With that said, have a lovely weekend!

Shenaz

British Ports Association

Registrations Open for 2025 BPA Conference! 

The BPA has opened registrations for our 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition, which will return to the Humber for the first time since 2013. Jointly hosted by Associated British Ports and Grimsby Fish Dock Enterprises, the two day conference and exhibition will be held at the Forest Pines Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa on 15 -16 October 2025.

The BPA anticipates welcoming more than 300 delegates and hosting over 30 exhibitors across the two days. In addition to the conference and exhibition, delegates can take advantage of a lively social programme, including a pre-conference Welcome Reception (Tuesday 14^th October) and the chance to ‘Party Underwater’ at Hull's award-winning aquarium, The Deep (Wednesday 15^th October).

Forest Pines Hotel will also host the 2025 BPA Awards & Gala Dinner on Thursday 16^th October, which will bring the curtain down on this year’s event.

Early Bird Registration:

• £625 + VAT | Early bird - BPA member
• £695 + VAT | Early bird - Non member

Register before 30 May 2025 to take advantage of the Early Bird rate. 

After this Standard Registration will be:

• £695 + VAT | Standard - BPA member
• £770 + VAT | Standard - Non member

Delegates can register for places online at www.bpa2025.com

Partnership Opportunities

Showcase your business to an audience of over 300 port and marine professionals when the 2025 British Ports Association Annual Conference & Exhibition returns to the Humber in October.

A range of exhibition, sponsorship and advertising packages are now available for the event, which includes:

• A two-day conference and exhibition at the 4*Forest Pines Hotel, Golf Resort and Spa
• Social events, including a pre-conference Welcome Reception, ‘Party Underwater’ at The Deep and the 2025 BPA Awards and Gala Dinner
• Interactive talks and workshops
• Discounted exhibition space for BPA members

Further Details can be found here:

Partnership Opportunities or contact Freshwater directly: BPAconference@freshwater.co.uk

US Proposes New Port Fees on Foreign Ships

Alongside the recent US tariff proposals, late last week the US Government revealed plans to impose a new set port fees on Chinese ships to try to revive shipbuilding in America and challenge China's maritime dominance. We have been examining these as have the Department for Transport who convened a call for shipping operators yesterday that we joined.

These proposals have been under consideration for some time and are not quite as dramatic as were originally proposed but could still have a major impact on shipping and trade. In its Annexes, the US Trade Representative (USTR) s.301 proposal document suggests that from mid-October, Chinese ship-owners and operators will be charged $50 per ton of cargo with the fees increasing each year for the next three years. Although it is too soon to assess what might happen China is a major player in ship building and certain types of vessels such as containers ships are regularly owned/operated by Chinese companies. Shipping anoraks and legal experts will now doubt be mulling over these proposals. 

Also the USTR is suggesting that all non-US built ships carrying cars will be charged $150 per vehicle (although capped at five calls a year). This is new but in general the fees are lower than a plan floated in February to charge up to $1.5m for each American port a Chinese ship visits but could still be substantial.

Rather ominously, alongside the proposals an Executive Order from the White House suggests that the US would engage with "allies" to support and respect these proposals elsewhere. Whilst this wording is not as firm as was previously mooted, it would still be be a major development for ports in the UK if the policy was ever somehow to be replicated here.

Revised PSS SIP on General Cargo

This week our friends at Ports Skills Safety (PSS) published a revised and updated Safety in Ports (SiP) guidance document 002 on General Cargo. Following the launch of PSS's SiP Guidance Framework last year, this revised SiP is focusses on the safe movement of general cargo through ports.

It was revised by a PSS Working Group comprising representatives from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), trade unions and port operatives from PSS members to ensure it fully represents the work undertaken in ports. 

The SiP is available free of charge to non PSS members, but their members will also have access to an illustrated version, a SiP compliance checklist and a range of supporting resources.

UK imports: Carbon and Borders Consultation

This week the UK government published the draft primary legislation for the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), for consultation. This forms part of the government’s Net Zero policy in respect of trade and it looks at the emissions of products in both a direct and indirect way. Specifically it will place a carbon price on the emissions embodied in imports of specified goods in the aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen, and iron and steel sectors, although it will only apply to specific ‘CBAM goods’ that are imported into the UK as set out annexes to this legislation.

We expect this to involve a fiscal transaction on importers and not physical inspections or activity at borders but we are mindful of any provisions which impact the flow of goods through ports especially around new requirements of traders to know weights of goods for assessment process.  

This technical consultation will be open for 10 weeks and will apply to specified goods that are imported into the UK on or after 1 January 2027 across the whole of the UK. Goods which enter the UK from the Crown Dependencies including the Isle of Man, Overseas Territories and UK Continental Shelf will be subject to CBAM only to goods which originate from outside of the UK according to the UK’s non-preferential rules of origin Sectoral and product scope.

Details are here: Carbon boarder adjustment mechanism

Ports in the Community: Case Studies Needed!

We are once again compiling a BPA report that will summarise the various community and stakeholder initiatives undertaken by ports. This report will be a great opportunity to showcase the positive impact ports have on local communities and will be used when discussing policy matters and promoting the sector more broadly.

Submit Port Community Case Studies Here

We welcome summaries of initiatives involving educational institutions, local residents, charity groups, sports organisations, and other stakeholders. We are particularly interested in projects that go beyond routine public meetings, including special events or initiatives that you have hosted or organised.