Port of Liverpool, UK, Container Terminal Gets EIB Finance

River Mersey'a new terminal, 'Liverpool 2', gets European Investment Bank (EIB) port development loan.

Liverpool 2, is due to open in 2015, and the European Investment Bank has agreed to provide almost half the finance for the £305m development, reports BBC News Liverpool.

The post-Panamax terminal - for ships wider than the original Panama Canal - will be capable of handling ships carrying 13,500 TEU containers, compared to the current limit of 3,500 TEU in Liverpool, and will be able to accommodate two large ships at the same time.

Owner Peel Ports, said the terminal, which is part of a 20-year plan to transform the Port of Liverpool, would be more efficient and better for the environment as it would take large amounts of freight off the UK road and rail networks.

Geoff Muirhead, chairman of the Atlantic Gateway, a network of major developments along the Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal, said it was "great news". "This follows hard on the heels of the government's full approval for the construction of the Northern Hub Rail Improvement Project," he said.

"These two schemes mark a very successful start to the campaign designed to lever massive economic benefit and jobs across the whole of the North West."