ABP has 23 ports nationwide, stretching from Troon in Scotland to Plymouth in the south-west, which handle a wide variety of paper and forest products, ranging from timber to telegraph poles. Increasingly, ABP has committed to offer a range of value-added services for its forest product customers, and supplements handling and storage expertise with processing and distribution services.

Hull is the UK’s leading timber import port, with an annual throughput of over one million m³ per year. It provides extensive open and undercover storage facilities for all forest product and paper, and a feature of the port’s success in the timber trade has been its ability to offer shed accommodation for kiln dried and specialist timber.

Finland Terminal, one of the most significant facilities developed for forest products in the UK in recent times, was opened in May 2000. It provides over 58,000m² – eight full-size football pitches – of covered accommodation for the storage of paper, paperboard, pulp and panel products. UK export cargoes are also handled via the £6m facility. Finland Terminal is linked via the latest technology to various production and shipping centres in Finland, thereby ensuring accurate stock control and ‘real time’ cargo management information. Cargo handling is undertaken by Northern Cargo Services Ltd, an ABP subsidiary.

A brand new 5,700m² shed for forest products was inaugurated at the port in 1999. Located at the port’s Alexandra Dock, this was provided for TTS Shipping, which operates regular forest products services from Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Baltic states.

The UK’s most inland port is situated at Goole and timber is an important part of its trade. Two new terminals – a 5,250m² shed for Global Shipping Services and a 2,700m² shed for PAL Line – will be opened during 2001, extending the port’s capacity for handling weather-sensitive forest products such as kiln dried timber and board materials.

A state-of-the-art facility, the Port of Ipswich Timber Treatment Centre, was opened in October 1999. The port primarily handles sawn timber – carcassing, pallet wood and fencing materials – as well as high-quality board products.

The new facility features two 24m long pressure vessels which use preservatives from Arch Chemicals to treat timber for a wide range of end uses, from fencing to building, to provide complete protection against decay and insect attack.

Ipswich investment

To support the growing timber business at Ipswich, ABP also commissioned and opened a new 4,600m² warehouse facility in 1998 for storing weather sensitive forest products.

On the east coast, Grimsby is established as an ideal entry point for vessels from the Baltics, Scandinavia and near Continent, carrying a wide variety of lumber cargoes. Traffic is encouraged by the provision of both high-quality paved storage areas and warehouses for high-value cargo such as panel products, paper and pulp.

At the Port of Immingham, forest products trade has traditionally been based around Scandinavian forest product com-panies handling large volumes of paper, pulp and lumber products via dedicated handling facilities. The provision of rail sidings adjacent to the quayside has recently encouraged cargoes destined for Scotland and the Midlands to be transhipped at Immingham.

Humber International Terminal

Forest products business through Immingham entered a new phase with the opening of Humber International Terminal (HIT) – a new deep water riverside break-bulk facility – in June 2000. This new facility is operated by ABP, and allows specialised forest products carriers to use Immingham, which were previously prevented by the lock gates. HIT provides specialised handling facilities, including high quality warehousing suitable for paper cargoes and state-of-the-art handling equipment.

Further down the east coast, is King’s Lynn, a specialist timber handling port with a high reputation for efficient and skilled discharge and redelivery of timber products. The location of major timber receivers on and around the port estate for well over 100 years has led to the ready availability of expertise in treatment and milling services.

ABP King’s Lynn provides ‘pick-a-pack’ terminal redelivery services and comprehensive packages for importers, including vessel agency and distribution. Recently, the port attracted a ‘pick-a-pack’ operation for Barrington & Carlson, and scope exists for further expansion for dedicated timber operations.

Wales is served by several ports including Cardiff and Barry where increasing amounts of prime warehousing and securely fenced outside storage areas are being made available for timber and forest products. Both ports are well equipped for timber handling, and the forklift truck fleet at Barry was recently upgraded.

The new Cardiff Timber Terminal was opened in October 2000. Located on the south side of the port’s Queen Alexandra Dock, it has been built to accommodate the port’s growing timber trade and is suitable for all types of timber including kiln dried and carcassing timbers. Providing 5,500m² of covered storage, the new terminal complements existing facilities within the port’s dedicated forest products terminal.

As ABP’s most easterly port in Wales, Newport is ideally placed to service a wide hinterland. The port offers customers specialist handling facilities and timber treatment facilities; ABP also arranges a total logistics package for timber cargoes including the redelivery and stock control at Newport.

The south-west of England is served by the Port of Teignmouth, situated on the west side of Lyme Bay; here cargoes of up to 1,500m³ are now being handled on a regular basis.

In Scotland ABP operates two ports – Ayr and Troon – both situated on the west coast at the entrance to the Firth of Clyde. They are ideally placed to serve the industrial and economic centres of Scotland.

TimberLink cuts traffic

Ayr & Troon’s environmentally-friendly ‘TimberLink’ project was launched in April 2000. The scheme is helping to reduce road traffic in Scotland by transporting logs by sea to Ayrshire from the Argyll peninsula. The project was developed by ABP with the co-operation of Forest Enterprise – the agency which manages Forestry Commission land – and is being supported by a £4.4m grant awarded to ABP by the Scottish Executive. Currently some 300,000 tonnes of logs are transported by road every year, with journeys of around 190 miles each way, from Argyll to destinations in Ayrshire. ABP has chartered Red Baroness, owned by a local Troon ship owner, to make regular sailings from Argyll to ABP’s Ports of Ayr & Troon. The scheme is expected to remove lorry journeys totalling 1.4 million lorry-miles annually from Scottish roads.