Growth in forest products traffic helped balance the books for Associated British Ports Holdings (ABP) last year which saw its UK ports and transport turnover rise by 7% to £349.1m.
Reductions in the imports of some products were offset by growth in timber imports at some of ABP’s 21 UK ports.
Releasing its preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2003, ABP reported that total annual throughput at its ports increased by 3.4% to 124.1m tonnes.
The port of Hull and Goole saw a £600,000 investment in timber storage facilities to accommodate new business from Grange Fencing, and the Port of Immingham‘s forest products trade was boosted by the £1m Immingham Forest Products Terminal, a £800,000 warehouse built with Humber Timber Terminals and a £1m storage terminal built for Rowlinson Timber.
At South Wales Ports a reduction in the imports of steel slab was balanced by growth in timber imports and timber also benefited fom new developments at Newport and Barry. A £4.6m investment in new storage facilities took place at Newport and a £800,000 pallet production facility for Scott Timber became operational at Barry.
ABP’s value-added services division ABP Connect also reported a successful year, with turnover and operating profits compound growth of more than 20% since its launch in 2001.
