In contrast to all the gloomy economic predictions in the news today, the port of Tilbury has shown an increase in throughput for the first half of 2008. The port owners are anticipating an improvement in the second half of the year. They are also discussing plans to build a new terminal for trailer ferries on the south side of the river, with the ultimate aim of handling all container traffic on the northern side and all trailer traffic on the southern side. Tilbury management is also hoping to expand the port by another 26 hectares, to make more space available to shipping services from Sweden.