In order to discharge the individual concrete pieces, which weigh up to 24 tons and measure up to 24m in length, the port is handling one vessel at a time arriving from Germany. In total, 20,000 tons of components will pass through the port in some 20 shipments for onward delivery to the Amazon construction site.

Talking about the challenges of the operation, Steve Ali of Charles M Willie Shipping said, ‘Due to the various sizes and weights of these items and the required construction programme, we knew this would not be a straightforward job. The Rhine port of Emmelsum was chosen for the exportation of the cargo due to its locality to Paderborn, but this meant special river vessels would be required to navigate the shallow waters. We re now well into the project, however, and everything is going well.’

John Fitzgerald, ABP’s port director for South Wales added, ‘Not only is it good business for the port, it is also excellent for the wider South Wales economy because it will be used to build Amazon’s distribution centre, which will prove so beneficial to Swansea. When the centre is up and running it will also provide a huge opportunity for the movement of containerised goods via Swansea’s container handling facilities.’