Summary
¦ UK timber imports rose 13% in the first quarter.
¦ Backdated port rates have been cancelled.
¦ The Port of Shoreham is paving four acres for timber storage.
¦ The Port of Grimsby has developed a new area for Rowlinson Timber.
¦ PTG Treatments has opened a facility near the Port of Shoreham.
The UK’s ports were busier with timber in the first quarter, as imports grew by nearly 13%, according to The Timber Trade Federation’s latest timber statistics.
It’s not all plain sailing as importers are facing higher freight costs and difficulty in securing vessels, but ports and timber companies are investing in facilities, and the government’s reprieve on backdated port rates has brought relief all round.
Many companies had faced huge backdated bills for business rates after changes in 2008 to the way rates were calculated by the Valuation Office Agency. Stevedoring company Scotline Terminal Goole Ltd went into liquidation after it was unable to make an immediate payment of £200,000 – a portion of a £600,000 rates demand.
“Everybody is relieved that common sense has prevailed,” said John Fitzgerald, port director of ABP’s Immingham and Grimsby ports. “The way it had been organised was a complete shambles and the new government has recognised that.
“It’s a huge weight off the shoulders of the companies involved and now they can get on with their business.”
Investment at Grimsby
At the Port of Grimsby, ABP has invested £1.5m in redeveloping the port entrance, improving security and environmental management, and creating more operational land on the east side. It’s allowed Rowlinson Timber, the port’s key timber company, to nearly double its area so it could close its Immingham base and concentrate all its operations at Grimsby.
The development gives Rowlinson more flexibility, allowing the company to access certain storage when it’s needed.
“It’s part of a bigger scheme but because Rowlinson is such an important part of the port we looked at how we could support them in the scheme,” said John Fitzgerald.
He added that it was typical of the close working relationship the port and Rowlinson had enjoyed over the past 10 years.
“We work closely with them and try to be as flexible as possible, which, in turn, gives them flexibility, and that’s a huge advantage to them,” he said. “We’ve worked well together in what have clearly been challenging times.”
Rowlinson managing director John Bate said ABP understood the timber industry. “It’s a real gold partnership; it’s sure to stand us in good stead,” he said.
The recession did affect timber cargoes around the country. At the Port of Shoreham general manager and director Alan Motterham said volumes went down last year but in the past two months they have risen and in late June there was already 13,200m³ booked just for the first few days of July. “We’re full to the brim with timber. We’re having problems finding where we’re going to put the next boat,” he said.
More timber storage
Liner services from Sweden and Finland have just increased their frequency and the port is investing £1m in paving four acres for timber storage. Mr Motterham hopes that this will eventually house a shed, adding to the existing 42,000m² of undercover storage for timber.
For timber importers, one of the attractions of Shoreham, he said, was its Track-A-Pack stock control system which, using bar codes and radio frequency technology, tracks all timber movements throughout the 2.5km length of the port.
“Our customers can go onto our website and look at what we’re doing with their stocks. As we pick a load and put it on a lorry they can chart its progress,” he said.
The system also allows Shoreham’s stevedoring arm to supply customers with mixed loads. “If they want just two packs of Swedish and three packs of Finnish, then that’s what we load,” said Mr Motterham.
The next development will be online ordering.
The port, which celebrates its 250th anniversary with an open day on July 18, was the first in the UK to install hydraulic cranes – two general purpose cranes to which timber spreaders are attached, and one dedicated to steel.
“They’re they same cranes used to load the timber in Sweden and Finland. They’re very fast, safe and efficient,” said Mr Motterham.
Forth Ports recently followed suit, investing £3.2m in four hydraulic handlers. “In 2009 we handled around 110,000 tonnes of timber and our investment in four Sennebogen machines is helping to increase the efficiency of our quayside operations. This places our timber handling operations in a strong position when we start to see the recovery of the construction industry,” said operations and resource director Stuart Wallace.
He said Forth Ports was also in talks to create a series of forest products distribution centres in central Scotland. The move would “recognise the environmental and cost benefits of using coastal shipping to deliver goods to locations close to the end user”, he said.
Coastal shipping
Also in Scotland, ABP has been awarded an extension to the contract for timberLINK, the coastal shipping service which transports timber from four ports in Argyll to the Port of Troon in Ayrshire. The operation, which started in 2000, diverts the equivalent of 8,000 lorry journeys – more than one million miles – to short-sea shipping each year.
A report for the Forestry Commission, published in March, estimated that in 2009/10 the service would save 10kg of CO2 per tonne of timber transported.
There are also economic benefits. The report estimates that road damage is reduced by an average of 3.4% and the environmental value ranges from £4.28-9.27 per tonne.
Timber imports are also keeping ABP’s Port of Hull busy. “With the exception of last year and the back end of 2008, timber’s been quite buoyant and driving around the port now you’d think it’s starting to come back again,” said commercial manager Phil Coombes.
New business
Last year, importer/merchant James E Smith (Timber) Ltd established a port presence at Hull with the purchase of North Sea Lumber’s business – an office and sawmill on Alexander Dock – from the administrators.
“We had no port presence before but with so much Scandinavian timber coming into Hull it’s a very good location for a sawmill,” said chairman and managing director Barry Hurst.
The Birmingham-based company already operates a Tanalith E treatment facility on the other side of the Humber at New Holland, but its new base at Hull, established last summer until the title of James E Smith Northern Ltd, provides easier access to northern England and Scotland. It has also enabled it to increase volumes and now the two companies import a combined total of around 1,000m³ a week.