Associated British Ports (ABP) is the largest port operator in the UK, with 21 strategically sited ports handling the vast majority of goods coming in and out of Britain. Timber plays a large part in the total volumes handled by ABP, with some ports having a particularly high concentration, including the South Wales Group – Barry, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.

“There has been a strong tradition of timber importing through South Wales, particularly from Canada and even though that traffic has diminished, the attraction never disappeared,” said Budha Majumdar, port director for ABP South Wales.

“However, while much of this used to be on a ‘spot’ basis, we’re now far more interested in developing facilities with partners, to give a more even spread of tonnage. We obviously still service the spot market, particularly through Newport, but see our role as matchmakers between shippers, carriers, importers and all the other links in the chain, providing the necessary investment to bring this all together.

“Lumber is space invasive,” he continued. “We want long-term deals, as the days of the port dumping ground are over. We can identify land areas and by using an economic, value-added measure we can get the return on investment and capital that’s needed.”

Simon Brett (Newport), Peter O’Brien (Swansea) and Clive Thomas (Barry & Cardiff) are the deputy port managers who make this all happen by liaising with each link in the supply chain.

Peter O’Brien explained how this is working at Swansea. “While we are the smallest player in the South Wales Group, this can have its advantages, especially when it comes to service for a large client such as RKL (Plywood) UK.”

“We were shipping volumes into a variety of ports around the UK,” said RKL managing director Geraint Hawkes, “and while this looked good and our business grew, there was no real economy of scale for us and each port did not realise quite how large we are. We decided to group all of our importing on one site and selected Swansea for a variety of factors, not least of which is ABP’s keenness to invest in infrastructure.”

The Swansea structure is geared to RKL’s needs, with ABP discharging cargo to the RKL warehouses within the port, leaving the importer to deal with all outgoing deliveries. As all its stock is in one place, it can be mixed on trailers, giving its customers a better service.

Swansea’s ability to take 30,000-tonne deadweight vessels has given RKL great flexibility, importing cargoes from Brazil, the Far East, Spain and the Baltics.

“Many local companies are using Swansea on a spot basis as vessels discharge part cargoes with us, before moving on to other ports,” said Mr O’Brien.

Ultimate streamlining

Over at Barry, pallet manufacturer Scott Timber has taken its streamlining to probably the ultimate point, as Clive Thomas explained. “We have come together with Scott Timber to provide a quayside manufacturing facility. Timber is discharged and is then available for loading straight into the pallet factory unit at Barry, reducing handling and associated costs.”

Scott Timber is a fast-growing business and the new Barry port factory has been so successful that a further two acres will be added to the existing four-acre site.

The whole Cardiff dock site has changed beyond belief in the past 20 years and there are many thriving partnerships with ABP.

Coals to Newcastle

“Tilhill, part of UPM-Kymmene, is probably the most extraordinary story,” said Mr Thomas. “It is taking Welsh woodchips and shipping them through Cardiff to Finland, for pulp production. If ever there was a coals to Newcastle story then this is it!”

Tilhill‘s timber operations director, Steve Lavery, confirmed the success of the operation. “We’re currently running one vessel per week and we predict the overall volume to climb to over 80,000 tonnes per year. This sourcing of woodchips is one in a chain of vital raw materials for our Finnish production.”

Newport is the largest site by far, covering 550 acres – and recent investment has resulted in a 24% growth in timber volumes. “It’s got water on three sides and we handle the largest volumes of timber for the South Wales Group; over 150,000 tonnes last year which will grow again in 2004,” said Simon Brett.

The Newport infrastructure gives the port the ability to handle very large cargoes. “We have the fourth largest lock in the UK, allowing us to take vessels with a deadweight of over 40,000 tonnes,” he continued.

Various timber companies operate out of Newport, using a range of customised, flexible packages, including BSW, Finnforest (through the acquired Burt, Boulton & Hayward telegraph pole unit), International Timber and Jewson, and West Bank Timber.

Brian Griffiths of West Bank Timber explained its strategy: “We already had agreements in place with ABP at Ipswich and it was relatively straightforward to agree an arrangement here in South Wales. This has given us an excellent facility, backed up by a strong investment in the site by ABP, which is growing rapidly in volume terms for our distribution of Baltic fencing and constructional timber products.”

Neil Rooks manages the new International Timber operation at Newport, where it is importing material for the timber frame market. He agrees that working with ABP has been beneficial: “They’ve been very helpful, providing a purpose-built site for us; it’s a good working partnership.”