The seeds of Arbor Forest Products’ links with New Holland Dock go back to the early 1960s. The company – known as Hudson & Co at the time – had acquired Hull-based timber importer JB Stringers to break into the realm of timber importing.
The company leased a site from British Rail and spent the following three years developing the facilities, before importing its first timber to the site in 1965.
Back then Hudson was going up against an established timber import trade which was difficult to break into.
It bought the land in 1983 and continued to develop the site, over the years.
"Much of the timber had been coming in through the major ports and there were strikes in the 1970s," explains Arbor’s commercial director Jason Ostler. "The ability to import timber directly was a key moment as far as we were concerned. "In the last six years £14m has been invested in the port facilities, but also in further processing for the production of MDF products. We have continued to invest in plans for the next 2-3 years."
"A key element of the Arbor business is we have been very successful in supplying the market when it wants the product. People want a just-in-time operation."
Arbor supplies more than 225,000m3 of timber to the building, DIY and construction trades, through independent merchants, each year. Products cover a wide area and include high-class joinery timbers, deck boards, carcassing and fencing timbers.
Utilising long established supply agreements with sawmills in the Nordic countries, the Baltics and Russia, timber is imported direct into Arbor’s wholly-owned port at New Holland – the largest dedicated timber terminal in the UK.
Mr Ostler estimated that softwood volume throughput at New Holland was over 9% of all UK softwood imports in 2015. This includes the operation run by Crown Timber. In 2015 industry statistics show all softwood imports were 20% down compared to 2007, but Mr Ostler said Arbor’s volumes were up 30% in the same period. Since 2012, the volumes have increased 50%.
"We can’t keep growing the business without putting the infrastructure behind it." "The number of vessels arriving is about 2.5 a week."
The whole site extends to 70 acres and some 90,000m3 of softwood can be stored at any one time, with logistics being in-house. An extra 10 acres of land was purchased in 2013 and concreted to provide extra space at a cost of £3m.
In the last 18 months, the previous New Holland port manager retired and Paul Holland was recruited from ABP. Major recent investments have included a new £5.5m softwood planing facility built with Weinig technology. Speeds of up to 250m/min are being achieved.
The MDF further processing investment was introduced in 2014 at a cost of £3.5m. "We believe the system is the most advanced MDF planing plant in the UK." A further £1m investment in high-pressure treatment facilities was made in 2015. The system uses Koppers’ treatments, taking annual treatment capacity up to 180,000m3.
"Our people working are a key factor, but we also understand what merchants want. It’s the little and often principle of being able to put all these products on one vehicle." But Mr Ostler realises that timber is feeling the squeeze from other cargoes around UK ports.
"Where does timber fit in the priority list? The reality is it’s at the bottom as a commodity product which needs a lot of people and a lot of space to service it.
"In the future, timber could be excluded from the deep water ports. There are more lucrative contracts out there for the ports companies, including paper. Timber needs really big volumes."
Mr Ostler said most traders reduced their timber pack size in 2007-10 in response to market dynamics and client demand. This meant that ports had to try even harder than they did before 2007 to make timber as a cargo pay its way.
