The arrival of Britain's first shipment of new Citroen C5 estate cars highlights the growing potential of the port to become a hub for car imports in the south-east, according to GEFCO logistics company.

The shipping firm LD Lines brought the first in the latest batch of 456 Citroen Tourers, with an estimated value of £7.5m, into Portsmouth port at 9.30pm on Saturday, following a shipment of saloon models in March.

Now GEFCO general manager Jamie Humphrey says the firm is looking at opportunities for a longer-term deal to make car shipments a fixture at the port.

He said: 'Our moves so far have gone very smoothly and there's a lot of enthusiasm and what we'd be looking to do is to sit down and discuss the future for the port with LD Lines.

'In truth, we bring in hundreds of thousands of cars, and Portsmouth is a small part of that. But if you take the example of Bristol, we started with small volumes but that doubled by the end of the 2007, and there's every chance Portsmouth port could become a major player for the import of these vehicles in a similar way.'

GEFCO is working with LD Lines using an innovative method of importing which uses spare space on ro-ro passenger ferries to take the cars from Le Havre, France, to Portsmouth and onward to the nation's dealers.