Southampton's maritime economy and who it meets

Southampton is a port city, and the port is large by any measure. What is less obvious from the waterfront is how much of the maritime economy sits away from the docks, in engineering firms, boatyards, insurers, software suppliers and training providers. For a local business, that wider sector is where the connections are.

The port in figures

On its Southampton page, Associated British Ports (ABP), which owns and runs the port, says it:

• supports 45,600 jobs and contributes £2.5 billion to the economy each year;
• handles exports worth £40 billion a year;
• processes 600,000 vehicles a year, and calls itself the UK's number one vehicle handling port;
• is home to the UK's second largest container terminal;
• welcomes around three million cruise passengers a year.

These are ABP's own figures and the page does not give a date for them. Its cruise figures are more recent. In December 2025, ABP said Southampton had welcomed over three million cruise passengers for the second year running, with its highest number of cruise calls. Citing Carnival UK's 2025 economic report, it said each cruise that starts or ends in Southampton contributes between £1.9 million and £2.5 million to the region. That estimate comes from a cruise operator's commissioned report, so treat it as the industry's figure.

The official employment survey gives a separate view of the city. In 2024, BRES counted about 10,000 transport and storage jobs in Southampton, 8.7% of the city's employment, against 4.6% across the Hampshire County Council area. UK Business Counts recorded 825 transport and storage businesses based in the city in March 2026.

The wider maritime sector

The port is one part of a bigger sector. In March 2026 the Hampshire and the Solent Local Skills Improvement Plan published a maritime sector report, drawing on an April 2026 economic impact study for the industry body Maritime Solent by WPI Economics. It found that the sector across Hampshire and the Solent:

• directly supports 46,100 jobs and £4.6 billion of gross value added (GVA) a year;
• reaches 149,100 jobs and £12.2 billion of GVA once supply chains and spending are included;
• produces about £100,500 of GVA per worker, which the report says is well above the UK average.

The report lists what the sector includes: commercial shipping and cruise at Southampton, defence and shipbuilding at Portsmouth, leisure marine and superyachts along the coast, ports and logistics, offshore energy and maritime business services. It notes that 40% of British Marine's membership is based in Hampshire, and that the Southampton International Boat Show attracts around 100,000 visitors a year.

The Freeport

The Solent Freeport is the main new piece. The skills report says it was designated in 2022. Its tax sites include Navigator Quarter, Dunsbury Park and several sites on Southampton Water, and its partners include ABP, Portsmouth International Port, Southampton Airport and several councils, Hampshire County Council among them. The Freeport's own site gives its aims as 15,000 jobs and a £1 billion uplift in GVA. Those are targets, not results.

Where maritime businesses and their neighbours meet

The sector has its own networks. Maritime Solent, the industry body behind the 2026 study, has an organiser page with us, though nothing of theirs is listed at the moment. Most maritime suppliers, though, meet their customers and partners at general business events, because the people who buy from a marine engineering firm or a logistics software company are often in finance, operations or HR rather than at a marine trade night.

In Southampton, the listings show several kinds of room where that happens:

• Chamber and business association events. Hampshire Chamber of Commerce runs evening and daytime events in the city, and the guide to what a chamber does explains how they work.
• Regular breakfast groups. Solent Business Connections meets fortnightly, with open networking and short pitches.
• Large venues with their own series. Southampton FC runs a leadership breakfast series for local business people.
• Expos. B2B Expos runs a regional exhibition in Southampton with seminars and exhibitors.
• Specialist roundtables. The CIPD Wessex branch runs a roundtable for senior HR and people leaders across the Solent, which matters in a sector where the skills report lists several hard-to-fill roles.

What this means if you're going to events

If you sell to the maritime sector, or want to:

• Work out which part of it you serve. Cruise, cargo, defence, leisure marine and offshore energy have different buyers. The LSIP report's list of sub-sectors is a good map.
• Go where the buyers are, not only where the boats are. Operations, finance and people leaders go to general business events. Specialist evenings are better for peers.
• Ask about skills. The skills report cites a 2023 study in which 75% of maritime employers struggled to find candidates with the right employability or interpersonal skills, and says the 2026 evidence shows the same. Training providers, colleges and recruiters are a real part of this sector's conversations.
• Bring the figures with care. If you quote the port's or the sector's numbers, say whose they are and when. The ABP and Freeport figures are the organisations' own, and the GVA estimates are from studies commissioned by the industry.

Find the next one

The listings below are the current dates. For more, see the Southampton town page, Southampton and the Solent, breakfasts and expos, or everything on this week.