Associated British Ports’ (ABP) Port of Hull is investing £500,000 to provide and operate a distribution centre for Finnforest UK Ltd for the next five years.
The centre will handle a range of Finnish and Scandinavian sawn softwood products for Finnforest and throughput is expected to be more than 100,000m3 a year.
An existing terminal within the port’s Alexandra Dock, which is operated by Northern Cargo Services (NCS), is to be extended to provide the new 6,300m2 distribution centre. The current area of the existing terminal is 3,140m2.
NCS will provide stevedoring, receiving and handling services for Finnforest.
Finnforest UK director Mark Tonge said ongoing business growth demanded that the company added to its logistics infrastructure in the UK. This is the first time the company has had a meaningful presence at the Port of Hull and it will use the facility to feed its own manufacturing sites in the UK as well as third parties.
He went on: “Logistically the port is ideally located for onward distribution to our customers and our UK manufacturing facilities, and fits well with our logistics infrastructure at other UK ports. We expect to see our own vessel charters coming to the Port of Hull on a regular basis to feed this distribution centre.”
Work has already begun on the centre which is expected to be operational by October this year.
