Port operators on the Mersey have traditionally looked to the other side of the Atlantic for their business, so when imports of Canadian forest products started to dwindle, the pickings started to look a little slim.

While ports on the east coast of the UK could increasingly look to the Baltic states for timber, those on the west coast faced more challenging times. Until, that is, Sontrade Lines Ltd set up its Baltic service seven years ago from Bristol and six years ago from Liverpool.

Sontrade, the head offices of which are in Bristol, is part of the Sonae Group of Portugal. The Merseyside arm of the shipping line still brings Portuguese products – maritime pine, chipboard, laminate flooring and a variety of general cargo – into the UK, but the biggest chunk of its business is now Baltic timber.

As marketing and sales manager Tony Squires explained, it was Portugal’s move away from its traditional fencing and pallet business that forced the change. “Portugal was pushing the prices up after joining the EU and there is only speciality product coming from there now.

“Really we were pushed into it by one or two of our customers saying that Baltic timber was much cheaper.”

Product mix

Sontrade began to bring in fencing and pallet material from Latvia, but the product mix is now much wider and includes kiln-dried, garden products (notably decking) and significant – and increasing – volumes of carcassing timber.

“We’ve gone from strength to strength in the last two years,” said Mr Squires. “Two years ago we were handling less than 60,000m3 from the Baltic. We’re now doing about 100,000m3 and we’ll exceed that this year.”

He remains confident of achieving that target despite the continuing presence of ice in the Baltic region, which makes life “unpredictable”.

“We’re operating 2,600-3,000m3 ships, which we charter, and were just about to start bringing in a vessel a week before the ice. Now we’re doubling the size of the ships, which helps them get through the ice and we’re doing two 4,500m3 vessels a month. That has helped us maintain the service to our regular customers.”

Those customers, mostly independent merchants and importers, are willing to pay the higher freight costs associated with shipping cargo around to the west coast because they’re offset by lower haulage costs once the material hits terra firma. “Initially everyone said it was cheaper to send Baltic material to the east coast,” said Mr Squires, “but the M62 is so congested west of Leeds that it’s better to put it on a ship. I think the situation will improve for Liverpool, particularly for cargo coming to the west side of the country.”

Smaller lots

Sontrade intends reverting to the smaller ships on a weekly service as soon as the ice allows and this should please its customers, one of which, Keith Purcell, managing director of Evans Bellhouse, remarked: “Smaller lots coming in on a more frequent basis assist cash flow. That’s why we’ve been enjoying a good relationship with Sontrade because they’ve been using these smaller vessels and it really spreads the load out and balances the specifications available to us.”

Sontrade and its stevedoring sister company Interport Logistics Ltd are based at Huskisson Dock where they make full use of the seven acres of outside storage and 280,000ft2 of warehousing. It employs a staff of eight at the Bristol office and nine at the Liverpool office with another 12 on the stevedoring side, although when a ship is in the latter team is supplemented with sub-contractors.

Sontrade also says it has an excellent working relationship with its landlord, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Co and can extend its stockholding as it requires. “We also do odd ships to other ports around the coast and we’ll be looking at where we should be operating to in the future as well,” said Mr Squires.

Baltic produce makes up around 50% of the timber handled by Sontrade and Interport Logistics on the Mersey and about 30% of its general cargo.

Riga to Londonderry

Its Baltic trade has been so successful that Sontrade has just started a parallel service from Riga to Londonderry. Operating at one ship every five weeks and carrying a very similar product mix to that destined for the Mersey, once the thaw sets in the frequency will increase to a minimum of one vessel a month.

The company has dabbled in shipping from Estonia but finds that Latvia is the dominant force, certainly in terms of volume but also in terms of quality. “I’ve only been involved in the trade for three years, but I’ve seen a massive improvement in quality and presentation,” said Tony Squires.

While there is a school of thought that the Baltic states will follow the increasingly expensive path set by Spain and Portugal and that the timber trade will start sourcing more material from Russia, Mr Squires doesn’t think that will happen soon. “When you look at the number of people who go to Riga a month to buy timber and the market that’s there, there is no way that’s simply going to be transported to St Petersburg without a massive change in their [the Russian’s] way of thinking.”