The volumes of oil, containers and building materials all rose markedly. Prior to 2016, port throughput had been increasing at between two to three percent, year-on-year. PLA chief executive, Robin Mortimer said:
"Our long term Vision is for 60 to 80 million tonnes of cargo to be traded every year through the Port of London - more than at any time in the Thames' history. Passing 50 million tonnes in 2016 is a major milestone towards this goal.”The tonnage of cargo handled at terminals on the Thames last year was 50.4 million tonnes, five million tonnes (or 11%) up on 2015. Growth was principally in oil trades which rose by 22% from 10.9 million tonnes in 2015 to 13.3 million tonnes in 2016. Containers and trailers (unitised traffic) was up 7% to 18 million tonnes; aggregates and cement increased again from 10.7 million tonnes (16%) up to 12.4 million tonnes. Cereal volumes also increased by 15% to one million tonnes. 2016 saw the first cargoes delivered to the Thames Oil Port, the former Coryton oil refinery site now redeveloped as a fuel terminal.
At the Port of Tilbury, a new chilled store for NFT was opened and the acquisition of land for port expansion was completed. DP World London Gateway handled increasing numbers of ultra large container ships - operating between Asia and Europe - benefiting from its operational resilience in bad weather, as well as securing additional central and south American and Oceania services; testing of facilities on Berth Three at the deep-sea port also started at the end of 2016.
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