Port of Grangemouth Celebrates Diamond Anniversary

That the Parliament joins with Forth Ports in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Scotland’s largest port, Grangemouth; notes that on 7 May 1966, the Sea-land freight service called into Grangemouth as part of the Europe and American shipping route transporting mostly Scotch whisky for onward travel to the USA on the first container vessel to call into the UK; notes that Grangemouth was the only UK port in the rotation making Grangemouth’s container terminal the first port in the UK to handle goods in this way, with the subsequent development of containerisation changing the way cargo was transported around the world; further notes that Sea-land launched the transatlantic container ship route in April 1966 with four ships in service, each carrying 226 containers with cargoes of cameras, safety razors and pre-fab housing complements; understands that the weekly route was the first transatlantic ship carrying only containers and called at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Baltimore, Maryland, in the US, then Rotterdam, Bremen and Grangemouth; considers that over the past 60 years the port has developed through significant investment and is now Scotland’s largest container port and logistics hub covering an area of 402 acres employing 280 people and is home to 32 businesses within the port; notes that the port is a multimodal facility and is primarily an export port moving Scottish goods to global locations; recognises that since 1966, the container terminal has handled in excess of 4.2million containers and today its operations manage more than £6 billion worth of goods each year, including food and drink, construction products and renewables; notes what it sees as this significant milestone, and wishes the operators of the Port of Grangemouth continued success in the future