With increasing regulatory and commercial pressure on shipping to cut its carbon impacts and increase efficiency, plus the constant drive to improve customer service, Scotline is investing £24m in stateof- the-art new vessels.
The company took delivery of the Scot Carrier late 2018 and, as shots of the aft looming impressively from the vast Dutch ship building shed show, the next addition to the fleet, Scot Explorer, is well on its way.
Next will be Scot Ranger, which starts construction early 2020.
“With the addition of the Scot Explorer and the Scot Ranger our fleet capacity will increase by about 20%, but we’re looking to sell off a couple of the older less efficient vessels so the overall increase will be less than 5% unless we need to increase it further,” said Scotline director and co-founder Peter Millat.
“The new vessels will be more environmentally friendly, complying with all the new rules scheduled to come into force in the near future. They are about 20% more fuel efficient than the vessels we’re looking to replace.”
The vessels are all supplied by the Royal Bodewes Shipyard at its new production facilities in Hoogezand in the Netherlands.
Construction of the £8m Scot Explorer started in February and is scheduled for completion in October, with delivery soon after. The vessel is a 4800dwt Bodewes Trader type, with Swedish/Finnish Ice Class 1B (Scot Ranger will be a Class 1A) and features an enclosed bridge wing and economical Caterpillar/Mak 6M25C main engine.
“Like the Scot Carrier, she’ll have a length of 89.98m, a beam of 15.2m, maximum sailing draft of 5.68m and cubics of 240,000cbf (6650 cbm),” said Mr Millatt. “She’ll sail under the British flag, like the rest of our fleet and be classed under Lloyd’s Register.”
All three of the new vessels are designed to load 7,000m3 of Swedish softwood, but they are highly versatile, capable of handling the range of wood products, including logs, chips, board materials, wood pulp and biomass.
Scotline’s modern coaster fleet serves northern Europe, with regular routes between Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Norway, the Baltic states, the Netherlands, France and the UK.
“Our cargoes vary from forest products and bulk cargoes to project cargoes and, with fully owned terminals in Rochester and Inverness and our own fleet, we can offer an all-inone service of shipping, stockholding and distribution, tailored to individual customer needs,” said Mr Millat. “We also fix market cargos for our vessels through a network of contacts worldwide.”
Scotline, which started shipping out of Varberg, Sweden in 1980, operates its own terminals in Rochester and Inverness, but also discharges in Hull, King’s Lynn, Chatham, Belfast, Warrenpoint, Wicklow and Newport.
“Over the last 39 years, we’ve built up a very loyal customer base by offering the facilities they need,” said Mr Millat. “As a private company, we’ve appreciated their support and we’ve reciprocated by investing in the timber trade, in ships, terminals and handling equipment.”
Naturally Scotline has kept a weather eye on Brexit developments and the media focus on potential port and customs hold ups. But Mr Millat is confident the company can cope. More than that, it can benefit.
‘’Being a small private company and having our own terminals, British flag ships and mainly British officers, we can adapt to changes quickly,” he said. “Specialising in forest products, which are generally duty free, we feel that there are large opportunities once we get away from “Project Fear”. We are only really looking at impacts on customs VAT entry, but the government has assured us they will not be allowed to hold up the goods on our terminals.”
Looking further forward, Scotline is upbeat and, judging by its comments, it won’t be long before further new developments are heading down the slipway.
“Sandy Catto and I built Scotline up from the beginning and both now have children working in the businesses driving it forward for the future,” said Mr Millat. “Privately owned port facilities specialising in the forest industry are increasingly rare. This, and owning our ships and controlling our own haulage, puts Scotline in a very strong position to continue to grow with the timber trade and to look at new opportunities.”
