Now "close to capacity", alternative receptor sites have been identified to house the "balance of the populations" still left at the London Gateway port site.
Later he told the BBC a journalist had asked him whether Labour would win the next election by relying on its core vote alone, while he was on a visit to the London Gateway port construction site.
The British government is pleased that Mr Kerry made London his initial port of call on his first official trip abroad, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall.
In February 1785 The Times listed opium from Smyrna (now Izmir) between oil from Leghorn (Livorno) and peas from Dantzic (Gdansk) in its roundup of goods unloaded at the port of London.
The Port of London Authority (PLA) imposes a 12-knot (14-mph) limit west of Wapping, which means that boats can show their exhilarating 30-knot cruising speed only on the eastern stretches of the river.
On Thursday, at London's Criminal Appeal Court, the port authority's lawyers are expected to argue the fine was "manifestly excessive" and should be reduced.