Forth Ports, the UK’s only listed ports company, has forecast “satisfactory” results for the full year, in spite of volumes at its most important ports having fallen in the nine months to the end of September.

The Edinburgh-based ports and property group said tonnages in Tilbury on the River Thames fell by 3 per cent, while liquid bulk volumes and container volumes at Grangemouth on the River Forth – Scotland’s largest container port – fell 5 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively.