Ports have a pivotal role to play

Bob Sanguinetti, Port of Aberdeen’s chief executive officer, discusses the future of the port and Scotland’s shipping industry.

Ports and harbours have played a key role in supporting Scotland’s economy for centuries, helping to shape communities and the lives of people working around the coast.

This is also true for Bob Sanguinetti, CEO at Port of Aberdeen since 2021, who has had a lifetime connection to the sea.

He said: “I’ve got a very strong affinity for, and I’m passionate about, all matters shipping and ports. I grew up in Gibraltar, where I was on or in the water for the best part of my upbringing, and then I had three decades in the Royal Navy.

“Tenyearsago,IlefttheNavyto go back to my native Gibraltar to run the port of Gibraltar, which I did for four years. That was a fantastic time at a busy port and a strategic location for the shipping industry.”

In 2018, he came back to the UK and became CEO at the UK Chamber of Shipping, during which time he was invited to give a speech at Port of Aberdeen. In this speech, he highlighted the key role he thought the port had to play in decarbonising shipping, thanks to the strong presence of energy companies and the opportunities created by the new South Harbour.

But Bob also stressed how the nature of business in Aberdeen offers possibilities too: “Relatively small ships run in and out of Aberdeen on a regular basis on relatively short trips to service the offshore sector. I felt – and I still feel – that new technologies and fuels for shipping would be tried and tested on small ships on shorter journeys before they get scaled up to the bigger ships on longer journeys.”

Now, two-and-a-half years into the role, Bob remains just as passionate about Port of Aberdeen’s potential impact on the future of decarbonisation.

Bob said: “We are the oldest business in the UK. We also now happen to own and operate the newest harbour in the UK. We made over half-a-billion pounds worth of investment in the last decade alone – a large chunk of that was in building the impressive new South Harbour.

“But we’ve also been upgrading and modernising our infrastructure as we go, and we’ve got plans to do that for the next 10 years as we progress our net-zero strategy, which sees us being the first UK port to achieve net zero by 2040.”

Part of the drive to net zero involves exciting work in partnership with technology centres, universities, shipping and energy companies looking at lower or zero-carbon fuels.

Bob explained: “One of our strands is to support the country at the strategic level on its own path to net zero. From the northeast of Scotland perspective, a key role we have to play is in supporting offshore wind.

“The public-private sector partnership is essential to enhance the UK’s port infrastructure so that we can provide the best possible support to the wider supply chain, in order to ensure that we meet the UK and Scottish Government’s targets of CO2 reduction.

“So, in the same way that we have played a pivotal role in supporting the offshore energy sector for the last 50 years through supporting oil and gas, we’re looking at pivoting towards renewables and offshore wind.

“We want to make sure that we have the capability to support

final assembly and integration of floating offshore wind projects, and then to become the port of choice to support operations and maintenance of the offshore wind sector, so that we can extrapolate the 50 years of experience that we’ve had so far into the next 50 years.”

While the drive to net zero is important on a national scale, Port of Aberdeen is also a big employer in the area – a role it takes just as seriously.

Bob said: “We directly employ 110 people, but we support 12,000 jobs in the wider supply chain. We’re a major driver for economic growth, and that’s set to continue with our expanded port, where the number of jobs will increase to up to 17,500 and our contribution to GVA annually – £1.5 billion at the moment – is set to increase to up to £2.4 billion per year if South Harbour achieves its full potential.”

Diversifying will be crucial, and, while the port is looking at the energy transition and supporting ScotWind activity, it aims to increase cruise calls in the port to over 100 a year by 2027.

Trade is also important for Port

of Aberdeen, which hopes to see more cargo activity by sea to reduce congestion and emissions from trucks on the roads. Bob said: “Ports are gateways for global trade. Aberdeen connects the north-east of Scotland with over 40 countries already.

“In 2023, we had 275 cargo vessel visits carrying more than three million tonnes of cargo. We’re aiming to capitalise on the increased capacity and capability of South Harbour, making more use of economies of scale because we can accommodate bigger ships that carry more cargo.

“We’re working closely with the Scottish Government, manufacturers, importers and exporters across the region to consolidate more trade by sea through Port of Aberdeen.”

As the largest berthage port in Scotland following the opening of South Harbour last year – with about 7,000 ship calls a year, equating to about 43% of all the vessel traffic in Scottish ports – Port of Aberdeen is determined to take advantage of its pivotal position, whether that’s for its own future or that of the wider shipping industry.

In the same way we have played a pivotal role in supporting the offshore energy sector for the last 50 years through supporting oil and gas, we’re looking at pivoting towards renewables and offshore wind

Bob Sanguinetti is Port of Aberdeen’s chief executive officer.