Growth Point status gained in region's record year.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: A fillip for future infrastructure funding, writes Felicity Landon

LAST year was a momentous one for the Haven Gateway as the British government gave the go-ahead for the development of new deepsea container facilities at Felixstowe South and Bathside Bay, Harwich, and the sub- region itself was declared a 'New Growth Point'.

Felixstowe made the headlines with the arrival of the world's largest containership, the Emma Maersk, in November and two months later, in January, Hutchison Ports (UK) chief executive Chris Lewis confirmed that the port's container volumes for 2006 had broken the 3m teu barrier for the first time.

This year Harwich International Port has said farewell to Stena Line's fast catamaran, the Stena Discovery, withdrawn from service in January.

Stena is investing GBP70m ($137.5m) in lengthening its two ro-pax ships, Stena Britannica and Stena Hollandica, to increase capacity on the Harwich-Hook of Holland route, and HPUK has invested in modifying and extending an existing berth at Harwich to accommodate them.

Last year was also notable for the fact that Harwich Haven Authority, the pilotage, conservancy and navigation body, saw a 'bottoming out' after what had been a steady, although very gradual, decline in both ship numbers and gross tonnage of ships handled at the Haven ports since 2000.