The Port of Shoreham is almost at the halfway stage of a £2m investment project which will improve services for timber trade customers.
Included in the ongoing programme is the transformation of a former coal stock yard into a cargo handling facility with frontage for the berthing of three vessels.
Fully block paved, the new 14.5-acre Fishersgate Terminal, which will be ready for occupation by December, has one strengthened section capable of handling lifts up to 150 tonnes.
The port is also investing heavily in block paving new operational areas and in a stock control system linked to bar coding at point of discharge in a bid to attract more customers. Existing customers will be able to access their stock data via Internet links with the port from March.
A decision by Jewson to take the importation and distribution of its carcassing timber back in-house has freed up Shoreham’s Brighton Terminal.
The port’s commercial manager, Valerie Stringer, said the six acre site, which served as an open quay stockholding facility for Jewson, will be available in the new year.
She added: ‘The terminal boasts some wonderful LIFFE approved sheds and we plan to build more, so there is an exciting opportunity for new value-added business to set up in this prime location.’
Sawn timber from the Baltic states and Scandinavia currently accounts for more than 600,000 tonnes of the 1.8 million tonnes handled by the port annually. Last week saw the arrival of the port’s biggest single shipment of Swedish softwood – a total of 4,200m[three]. It arrived on the mv Unitas H on charter to Siowalls of Vasteras which operates a regular liner service into Shoreham from Sweden’s west coast ports.
