The Celtic Freeport, spanning the ports at Milford Haven and Port Talbot in Southwest Wales, was officially launched on 13 March.
The official launch follows the freeport opening for business in November 2024.
Freeports are areas created by the government to attract investment into certain regions of the country, supported by a range of tax breaks and customs exemptions for businesses within the freeport area and benefiting from port infrastructure.
The Celtic Freeport is one of 12 such freeports to be established across England, Wales and Scotland since 2022.
It is a public-private consortium including Associated British Ports (ABP), Neath Port Talbot Council, Pembrokeshire County Council and the Port of Milford Haven, as well as energy companies, renewables developers, industrial complexes, innovation assets, academic institutions and education providers.
In the Celtic Freeport’s case, it is supported by £26 million of UK government investment, subject to approval of its full business case. This is on top of both UK and Welsh government tax breaks offered to businesses within the freeport.
Stakeholders in the Celtic Freeport hope that it will create up to 11,500 skilled jobs and attract up to £8.4bn of investment, both from the public and private sectors, as well as adding a projected £8.1bn in economic value (GVA).
They describe the freeport’s vision as creating a “green investment and innovation corridor that will drive inward investment, skills development, and national decarbonisation”.
Projects at the freeport include clean energy developments, fuel terminals, a power station, heavy engineering and the steel industry across Southwest Wales.
There are also plans for the Celtic Freeport to support new manufacturing facilities and major port infrastructure upgrades to facilitate the roll-out of floating offshore wind (FLOW) in the Celtic Sea.
The announcement about the freeport’s launch pointed to FLOW in the Celtic Sea as being “key” to making the UK a “clean energy superpower” by 2030.
Celtic Freeport chief executive Luciana Ciubotariu said the Celtic Freeport was taking significant strides forward, with key milestones secured.
These include “the planning consents for the LanzaTech sustainable aviation fuel production plants and RWE’s Pembroke Green Hydrogen plant, the launch of the Milford Haven CO2 Project, H2 Energy and Trafigura’s West Wales Hydrogen project securing a hydrogen CfD [contract for difference], Haush establishing a green energy HQ and their green hydrogen plant coming forward at Pembroke Dock and the approval of the wind turbine development to expand Dragon Energy’s Renewables Park.”
“These Celtic Freeport partner initiatives, coupled with investments in battery energy storage by RWE and port infrastructure at Port Talbot, are accelerating South Wales’ reindustrialisation and driving a decarbonised economy rich in evolving and new industries,” she added.
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