London Gateway is expected to become the UK's busiest rail freight terminal.

Port-focused conference sessions will take place at Intermodal Europe 2013 at the Hamburg Messe on 8-10 October, with speakers from the sector discussing challenges and sharing solutions.

On day one, port issues for intermodal transport will be discussed during a session led by Peter Ward, supply chain commercial manager at DP World London Gateway.

"The main focus of this case study conference session will be to look at what is currently going on within the ports and terminals sector around the world, such as economic drivers as the supply chain gets longer," Ward says.

"For instance, while port operations move east, manufacturing operations are moving west. To compensate for the length of the supply chain, ports are moving closer to the end-customer."

Intermodal Europe 2013 will precede the opening of London Gateway, which is the UK's first 21st Century major deep-sea container port and Europe's largest logistics park, expected to open at the end of 2013.

Alexandra Tornow, associate director of EMEA research for Jones Lang LaSalle, will lead a conference session looking at the increasing importance of logistics real estate to long-term port success, as well as the development of distribution centres at, or near, ports.

Rüdiger Beckmann, sales director of JadeWeserPort Logistics Zone GmbH & Co KG, will lead a conference session looking at innovative short sea and rail network opportunities for north-west Germany and north Holland.

An innovative ports and hinterland operations demonstration will be led by Benjamin Bruegelmann and Stefan Breitenbach, iPort demonstrator co-ordinators for Eurogate/HHM.

Drazen Zgaljic from MEDNET will present ways to simplify and harmonise maritime and port procedures in the Mediterranean region. The MEDNET project aims to deal with specific issues surrounding port operations and customs procedures.

Professionals from shipping lines, shipping agents, supply chain, transport and logistics and terminal managers are expected to attend these port-focused sessions.