Rochester has been an important gateway for centuries, with the many battles fought here a testimony to its strategic location, close to London.
It was here in 1215, for example, that King John famously laid siege to the castle for seven weeks during the First Barons War, shortly after the signing of the Magna Carta.
Today, just half a mile from this historic site across the River Medway on the Frindsbury Peninsular, there is the unmistakeable site of stacks of timber lining the quays.
Timber liner and terminal operator Scotline has spent the last 20 years building a reputation as a forest products specialist here. Today, 90% of its cargo handling across its four UK terminals – two at Rochester, Humber, and Inverness – is sawn timber.
For Scotline managing director Peter Millatt, the future is a mixture of excitement for the opportunities he sees for his business, in both timber and non-wood products, as well as one of change for UK ports as a result of changing priorities of port owners.
Gesturing to the stacks of timber on Scotline’s 11-acre Medway terminal, Mr Millatt describes the operation as akin to a supermarket.
Products ranging from carcassing timber to cladding, roof battens to I-joists are spread across both the Medway and adjoining Transit terminal operations, with Scotline able to sort, pick-a-pack, and mix and match products for onward haulage or delivery through to a buyer’s yard.
Product grouping and the use of code on packs are designed to make for easy stock identification and selection for forklift drivers conducting customer restocking orders.
"We moved into terminal operations after Margaret Thatcher got rid of the Dock Labour Scheme [in 1989]," said Mr Millatt.
Its first terminal operation in the south-east was at Whitstable in Kent and, since then, Scotline has watched a developing trend of customers wanting to keep their stock at ports. It started when Vida asked if it could keep 300m³ of stock on the quay.
"We were one of the first terminals that were effectively offering free storage," said Mr Millatt. He’s happy with such arrangements – as long as stock is turning over. "We don’t want 1,000m³ of stock left for 12 months," he added.
Sawmill customers
At the Medway terminal, which features 6,000m² of covered storage, you can see the products of many of the big sawmilling names – Vida, Holmen, Setra, Södra and Stora Enso, as well as a large presence of Derome Timber and some smaller sawmillers.
At the Transit terminal, packs from Germany’s Ilim Timber and BSW Timber Latvia, as well as UK mills, can also be seen, along with stock for Grafton group member L&G Forest Products and Nordic Forest (UK) Ltd’s roof battens.
About 25,000-30,000m³ of timber is currently on the Medway site, which has a 40,000m³ capacity, supported by a new Terex Fuchs MHL380 flexible wheeled crane with hydraulically operated arm and a conventional cable-operated crawler crane.
Annually, Scotline handles around 400,000m3 of sawn timber across its Rochester terminals. "Shipping is easy, it’s having the land to offer the whole package that is normally the difficulty," said Mr Millatt.
"We tend to look at ourselves as liner operators, not as ship owners. If we need another ship we charter in extra vessels, if we don’t need them, we release them."
The shrewd acquisition of the site in 1993 after an oil rig construction enterprise foundered at the development stage was a key moment for Scotline.
"We have a very valuable asset here," added Mr Millatt. "Having the freehold, nobody can interfere with what we are doing."
When Scotline was offered the opportunity to buy the adjoining Transit Medway operation in 2011 it jumped at the chance and started a new service from Gavle on the Swedish east coast into the terminal. The acquisition added 25,000m² of covered storage and another 14 acres of open storage – giving Scotline a considerable presence at Rochester.
The terminal has seven sheds, including a vast unit that includes storage for engineered wood products supplier Steico – including I-joists, Ultralam LVL and laminated wood rim boards.
Treatment facilities
Treatment facilities were added earlier this year when WJ Timber Treatments opened a southern facility, featuring two high-pressure treatment vessels in an investment of more than £200,000 (TTJ October 19/26). It is now installing a lowpressure tank.
And a venture with Quinn Cement has made better use of an awkward-shaped patch of land and is paying dividends for both companies.
Quinn has invested millions of pounds in four cement silos to serve the south-east construction industry. It also imports bagged cement from its Irish production facility for distribution to builders merchants.
The bulk facility handles 50-75 lorries a week, amounting to some 200,000 tonnes of cement annually.
"In the last six to nine months the Transit site has been nearly full," said Mr Millatt, adding that he’s always on the lookout for additional land in the south-east, at the right price.
But he admits it is getting harder to find suitable land for expansion. He gestures across the Medway to large swathes of former dock land (Corys, Stanleys and Honigs wharves) – now earmarked for housing developments. He cites examples of port owners’ wanting to develop other uses for their land, such as plans to convert 28 acres at the Port of Chatham for a mixed-use development including a conference centre, housing, hotels and a retail park. Such moves, he believes, are tantamount to starting the closure of ports.
"Timber is very land intensive, which a lot of the ports will not give to you."
He referenced the Siemens wind turbine development project at Alexandra Dock, Port of Hull, which has required several timber companies to leave.
"But this has strengthened our position here, especially when we bought Transit Medway. So we have laid our cards on the table that we are interested in forest products."
Private port ownership
Private ownership of ports, he said, has changed the industry landscape, with ports becoming very cargo specific and timber seemingly deemed less important than other cargoes.
Felixstowe, he said, was focused on containers and Tilbury increasingly on big ships, with timber having a much-reduced focus at the latter.
"If you look around the south-east of England now with sawn timber there is one site at King’s Lynn for Travis Perkins, a small amount at Great Yarmouth and Ipswich and a private terminal at Creeksea [Norvik Shipping/Continental Wood Products].
"Shoreham is a very good port and serious competition on forest products," he added, while Sheerness has a terminal operation for Crown Timber.
"You won’t see many general ports with timber stevedoring services in the south-east England. I think the only serious players are us and Shoreham."
Scotline has tried many of the south-east ports at one time or another, but Mr Millatt said the normal pattern of rates increases meant it was often better to move on to another port to secure better terms.
"We now have clever people owning the ports and they know how to get as much money out of people as possible."
Scotline was forced to close its terminal operation at Goole in 2010 because of £600,000 of backdated port rates demands. It then moved its Humber operation to Grove Wharf, Gunness. Another issue Scotline sees building within the shipping sector is the reduction in fuel sulphur content to 0.1% from 2015, with low sulphur fuel prices already rising.
This new regulation, combined with older ship engines not designed to operate with lower sulphur content and the trend of oil refineries not investing in new capacity will, Scotline thinks, drive up the cost of fuel.
"As soon as you talk about fuel shortages the prices are going to rocket," Mr Millatt added. Five of Scotline’s seven ships burn gas oil rather than heavy oil and the other two can be easily converted back to gas oil.
The company’s move towards ownership of ships – it owns seven modern box hold vessels and currently charters four – is down to its wanting reliability and service. The first purchase was the Hohebank in1993 and the most recent the MV Scot Pioneer in 2008.
Ship and terminal ownership combined with reliable partners in loading ports are successful ingredients in offering a reliable and costeffective "closed loop" service where the timber customer can have all its needs met from one operator.
Scotline’s first cargo-carrying exercise was in 1979, carrying Scottish spruce poles from Inverness to Bremen. The Scotline name was born from this Scottish link.
This early business was centred on transporting pulp logs, mainly to Varberg, Sweden. The liner service followed in 1981, carrying back loads of Swedish sawn timber to Inverness.
Today, the company reckons it ships 25% of Sweden’s sawn timber sales to the UK. In order to diversify its service, it has also developed regular services from Riga, Latvia.
Germany is still served, with four to five shipments every year, but many timber importers find trailer transport more cost-effective from the country.
"Trailer traffic door-to-door is very competitive and it’s now our biggest competitor," Mr Millatt added.
Other ports served include Karlshamn, Hamburg, Antwerp, Beverwijk, Wicklow, Belfast, Warrenpoint and Cork.
Scottish roots
Scotline is still firmly connected to its Scottish roots, transporting a large amount of logs, some from very small berths on the west coast. Norbord’s OSB mill and Södra, its first Swedish customer in the early 1980s, are major customers.
"In the last five years with the biomass sector rising up, everyone is screaming for logs," said Mr Millatt.
Mr Millatt’s business partner Sandy Catto runs the company’s Scottish operation, while other senior staff with Scotline for 25-30 years include sales and marketing director Cindy Crancher, Rochester terminal manager Tony Brown, technical director Roy Brooks and finance director Marion Osborne.
"We find it’s very exciting at the moment," said Mr Millatt. "There are all sorts of opportunities, like our cement venture and there are other opportunities we are looking at, some of which are non-timber related."
"We want partners – people we can work with and we want to keep expanding."
