Since Denholm was founded, and especially since Denholm Shipping Services was launched 20 years ago, the company has closely tracked developments in the timber trade. Whilst its interests now extend to chemicals, coal, grain, steel and energy, forest products remain a key strategic part of the business. Testimony to Denholm’s commitment has been continuous enhancement of services and investment in facilities to meet the timber market’s needs .
Denholm Shipping Services employs nearly 300 staff and has a network of 27 UK offices, all involved in forest products. They provide a wide spectrum of services ranging from shipping, customs clearance, distribution and warehousing to cargo handling, stevedoring, short-sea broking, ship agency and surveying.
The company covers both principal and smaller forest products ports: in the south at Tilbury, Thames river berths, Shoreham, Southampton and Poole; on the east coast, at Felixstowe, Hull, and the Tyne; and in Scotland, at Grangemouth, Rosyth and Greenock.
Denholm, Liverpool has both on- and off-dock facilities, including large warehouse premises in Kirkby. It also manages its own 20-acre quayside terminal at Birkenhead, which is ideal for forest products vessels offering undercover storage and distribution.
In the south-west, Denholm manages forest products terminals at Portbury and Avonmouth Docks, Bristol, complemented by off-dock warehousing operations.
The company has opened a new facility at Avonmouth Dock, Bristol catering for Baltic and Scandinavian timber. This is in response to growing volumes arriving from the Baltic on smaller vessels. Capable of taking vessels with up to 10,000m³ cargo, the terminal is expected to attract substantial volumes this year. Denholm manages the quayside labour, arranges customs clearance and distribution and charters vessels where required.
New Avonmouth warehouse
A new warehouse has also been built at S berth, Avonmouth, with 300,000ft² undercover storage capacity alongside a deepwater berth. This is currently being used for Baltic and Brazilian panel products.
Bristol is home to a number of liner services, together bringing in over 250,000m³ timber and plywood annually. Volumes are down on Canadian carcassing, but higher grade volumes are being maintained. Royal Portbury Dock, where Denholm manages an independent forest products terminal, receives monthly calls from Gearbulk ex South Africa/BC and Saga ex BC, a 10-day service from Wallenius Wilhemsen Lines ex US Gulf and eastern Canada and monthly sailings from Tirana Line ex Brazil. There is also potential for containerised forest products with the new weekly service by SAECS (Southern Africa Europe Container Service) from South Africa starting later this month.
In response to increased demand for forest products storage, Denholm has opened a new distribution facility in Tilbury. Just one mile from the docks, it gives importers and agents the opportunity to use an independent, off-dock warehouse, operated by forest products specialists. Comprising 24,000ft² warehousing in addition to outside storage, the facility caters for both bulk and containerised forest products. Services offered include container devanning, sorting, banding, shrink-wrapping, re-packing, and distribution.
The rise in demand for storage is also impacting on other Denholm centres. In Liverpool, Denholm’s Kirkby warehouse reports increased volumes of bulk and containerised forest products while at Bristol ICD, a Denholm joint venture, a growing number of containers of specialised lumber are being devanned and distributed nationwide.
Terminals and warehouses are also responding to importers’ and merchants’ needs for additional services prior to delivery, possibly as a result of storage space being turned over to manufacturing or sold.
‘We are seeing a growing demand for sorting and picking, with deliveries comprising a number of small parcels from various vessels and suppliers instead of full loads from one vessel,’ said Tony Hewitt, Denholm’s Portbury manager. ‘This is the type of work in which Denholm specialises.’
