BRITAIN'S deepsea container ports are only just keeping up with cargo growth and struggled at times during the peak season that is drawing to a close.

But it will be years before any new capacity comes on stream, with some shipowners drawing up contingency plans to cope with anticipated bottlenecks as volumes continue to expand.

Although major container lines are quietly confident that continental ports will be able to handle more container traffic, they are less sure about the position in Britain.

'The UK may cause us a little problem as usual,' said Far Eastern Freight Conference chairman Adolf Adrion.

'There is room for efficiency improvements.'

FEFC lines are forecasting cargo liftings from Asia to Europe to grow by 15% in 2007 after a much bigger than expected increase in 2006.

Although container shipments from the Far East to the Mediterranean were up by 23% in the first 10 months of the year compared with 13% to northern Europe, the latter represents almost three times the volume.

But none of the UK port expansion schemes on the drawing board are likely to become operational for several years.

DP World is still waiting for final consent from the Department for Transport for the London Gateway project, while Hutchison Port's plans for Felixstowe South cannot be given the go-ahead until a public inquiry into a required rail upgrade has been held.

That is scheduled for March, with a decision not likely until the latter part of the year.

Only then will Hutchison be in a position to start work on the development.

The proposed Bathside Bay facility will take even longer, with Hutchison required to begin work on road upgrades before construction of the container terminal can begin.

That could be several years from now.

But industry reports that Hutchison may have gone cold on both schemes are being denied by the company.

'We continue to work on both projects,' said Hutchison Ports (UK) corporate affairs manager Paul Davey.

In the meantime, container lines say there were port delays at times in recent weeks, although nothing like as bad as in the 2004 peak season.

Congestion was a non-issue in 2005 as cargo growth slowed, but the bumper volumes witnessed in 2006 saw some problems resurface.

Southampton, which is also planning to expand capacity, 'creaked again this year,' said David Halliday, chairman and chief executive of CMA CGM (UK), with trucks having to queue at the dock gates on occasion.

The French line is one of those looking at ways to avoid problems next year as cargo throughput continues to increase.

One solution is to deploy larger feederships around the UK.