Since acquiring the Port of Tilbury in 1995, Forth Ports plc has invested some £60m to meet customer needs and to enhance Tilbury’s reputation as a centre of excellence for the distribution of goods.

Much of the investment has been aimed at maintaining Tilbury’s position as the major port for the import of forest products within the UK.

The investment has included an ongoing plant replacement programme, the construction of new dedicated and multi-user warehousing, plus the development of information technology to meet the ever-demanding requirements of the trade.

IT developments include re-writing the port’s whole cargo handling administration systems which many customers have direct access to, in order to improve service.

All this has been allied to extensive training to ensure Tilbury meets its commitment to quality of service.

In the past few years Tilbury has seen its forest product volumes grow to the current level of approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year. This figure while impressive, conceals a major shift in the profile of Tilbury’s forest product cargoes.

Changing cargoes

Traditionally, Tilbury has been a major handler of softwood lumber, particularly from the west coast of Canada, as well as plywood, particularly from South-east Asia. Certainly prior to Forth Port’s buying Tilbury, solid wood cargo would have accounted for 75% of Tilbury’s total forest product volume of some 1.5 million tonnes, with paper and board making up the balance of 25%.

Today, that position is almost reversed with paper and board totalling 70% and lumber/plywood the remaining 30%.

The most significant reason has been the demise of softwood imports from Canada, especially British Columbia. This has been largely overtaken by shipments from other areas but specifically from Scandinavia, the Baltics and Russia.

Timber from British Columbia would come in large vessels with considerable quantities on board which suited perfectly the larger ports in the UK.

With the change, the vessels calling are smaller, with less cargo and are therefore suited to the many smaller ports along the east and south coasts of the country.

The second major factor to influence the growth of paper business was Tilbury’s success in attracting the joint businesses of M-real and UPM-Kymmene. This agreement alone almost doubled Tilbury’s other paper handling in one go.

To accommodate its forest products business, Tilbury is a mix of dedicated space for some of its larger customers, as well as extensive multi-user facilities for the many smaller companies that wish to take advantage of the port and its ideal location.

In total Tilbury has 100 acres of space, including 58 acres of warehousing, dedicated to forest products. For its paper/board customers this includes a 35-acre (15 acres of warehouse) site for UPM-Kymmene and M-real, a nine-acre (six acres of warehouse) facility for Norske Skog and a further 26 acres (15 acres of warehouse) for Interforest Terminal.

Other customers are handled within the seven acres of multi-user warehouse at the Port’s 42 berth.

That said, Tilbury remains a major player in the UK’s solid wood products trade. While its balance of cargo volume may have shifted to paper in recent years, Tilbury still handles close to one million m³ of plywood and lumber each year.

Plywood trade

South-east Asia is still the major exporting area for Tilbury’s plywood trade, although this has now been joined by Brazil as it takes over from the US as a major exporter of softwood plywood.

All other world trade regions are served by the many shipping lines running into Tilbury. This diverse range of panel product imports makes Tilbury the ideal location for those large importers seeking to provide a wide distribution of mixed products from a single port.

At Tilbury, specialist operations rub shoulder to shoulder with multi-user facilities. The port provides services for Finnforest UK using 23 acres (eight acres of warehouse), MBM eight acres (three acres of warehouse) and Montague L Meyer seven acres (five acres of warehouse).

Facilities are also enjoyed by James Latham, Caledonian Plywood (South) and Mendip Plywood. MBM, part of Consolidated Timber Holdings, is based at Tilbury and is a major importer of softwood timber in the UK. Its port facility is the largest timber handling terminal at Tilbury.

An additional 30,000ft² of warehouse has been constructed and was due to become available last month.

Tilbury’s success in the field of forest products has been based upon sound and lasting partnerships with its customers and this remains its philosophy as it seeks to develop and grow this demanding sector of the UK’s economy. Tilbury believes it is only by working closely with its customers that it can better understand the constantly changing needs of the industry.

Competitive edge

This in turn allows the port to make the aggressive investment decisions necessary to keep it ahead of its competition. Tilbury is no longer just a port, it is a distribution hub and therefore a vital link in the supply chain of its customers.

It has been essential to make this strategic change to its perception, so as to understand the new demand upon it. Not to have done so would have seen Tilbury become one of the pack instead of a leader in the field.