Severe weather hit UK supply chains last week, with several ports closing or suspending services because of snow and high winds.

On March 1, Maersk announced that Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Felixstowe, Grangemouth and Tilbury ports were closed, and services into London Gateway suspended.

A spokesperson for Felixstowe said both its container yards and rail terminals were open but problems elsewhere in the rail freight network had resulted in delays.

The London Gateway was forced to suspend landside operations for eight hours, said a spokesperson.

On the roads, as of Friday, Highways England continued to announce closures and delays following a spike in collisions and damage to roads caused by falling trees.

Air freight was also affected, with KLM suspending flights out of Schiphol, while services out of Heathrow were running on a “consolidated” basis. The London hub cancelled more than 350 flights on Thursday, with Dublin seeing some 330 cancelled. More than 1,250 services were cancelled across the UK.