On the South coast of England not far from Brighton lies the bustling, growing Port of Shoreham.
With Roman origins, the port has a long history of trade and is the largest timber handling port along the south coast, discharging in the region of 400,000m3 of mostly softwood each year, with the majority of imports from the Scandinavia and the Baltics –Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Russia.
Extending over a distance of 8km, Shoreham is a niche port with an emphasis on the importation of construction materials (aggregates, steel and timber).
It is also a government-owned trust port, which means it has no shareholders and all profits are reinvested into the port. Shoreham has seen significant growth in timber imports over recent years to serve the construction industry in the southeast.
The latest figures show that the level of timber imported to Shoreham has increased every year in the past four years.
Shoreham Port’s commercial/operations director Alan Motterham said it was looking to finish 2016 with just under 450,000m3 of timber handled. That’s up from 255,735m3 at the height of the recession in 2010.
One of the last ships due in last year was a 6,400m3 shipment from Kalmar, Sweden containing timber from Bergs Timber.
“Timber was being imported here when I joined in 1997 and we have a good customer base,” said Mr Motterham.
“We’ve been busy pretty much the whole way through the recession. And Shoreham is not just on the timber side but also aggregates and steel.”
He reported some 95 different users of the port during the year, with the main timber ones being MDM, AKZ, Elliott Brothers, Chandlers, Compass Forest Products, Hoppings, QP Timber, Stamco, Timber Direct/ Travis Perkins, Covers, SIG and Snows. Shipping lines operating timber services to the port include Ahlmark Lines, Jonsson Novabolagen, TTS Shipping and Timbership. Mr Motterham said part of the port’s
success was down to many major timber operators having stockholding at the port. “Customers like Timber Direct, MDM, Compass and AKZ will hold the stock here and it’s doing well for them,” he said.
He said the port’s bar code and online Track-a-Pack system had been very popular, giving good visibility on timber stock levels. This, he said, enabled 100% accuracy in stock movement details and provided an easy and accurate way for stock takes to be reconciled. “We have the room to do full stockholding for customers. We like to think we are a premier port in the southeast.”
MDM TIMBER
MDM Timber is probably the single largest importer of timber at Shoreham, with over 200,000m3 of sawn and machined timber stock being distributed from its port operation, at locations including Brighton Terminal and the inner and outer lay-by terminals.
From here deliveries are made throughout the south of England, the Midlands and south Wales, in quantities ranging from one pack to full loads.
MDM purchasing director Ken Fuller has a personal association with the port going back 40 years to 1976.
“It has developed a lot in the last few years. I remember in the old days when it was a small sleepy port on the south coast. It has just grown and grown. ”
Bar coding, he added, was a very important development.
“They do a very good job. Geographically, London is only one hour away and the M23 is nearby.” Mr Fuller said recent new housebuilding announcements from the government made him optimistic that future demand for imported timber will hold up well.
However, growth in trade has meant space at the port remains at a premium.
“These timber customers have been with us for a long time,” explained Mr Motterham. “We have turned down a lot of business from others this year. We just need more room.
“At the moment we are looking at expansion. We are buying up anything that becomes available on the port. We bought a building at the east end for £800,000 recently and have rented it out to another customer.”
“We also own bits of land at the west end but we’re gradually shutting it down and selling it off for development such as apartments. And anything that comes up at the east end we are buying it up so we have full control.”
STORAGE
Shoreham is a typical linear river port with a good provision of berthage.
It currently has over 46 acres of storage over four terminals which includes 48,000m2 of undercover warehousing, which was boosted recently by construction of a new shed last year comprising 6,000m2.
Reidsteel was contracted to build the three linked sheds to provide all–weather storage for timber and other products. Since 2002, the company has been involved in the design, fabrication and construction of 14,000m2 of covered storage facilities at the port.
Sussex Port Forwarding Ltd, owned by the port, provides stevedoring and freight forwarding services to port clients. It is equipped with a fleet of cranes and forklifts to facilitate quick discharge rates, dependent on the vessel stow, of usually 330-400m3 per hour per crane.
The company’s forklift fleet can handle the discharge of over 30,000m3 of timber a month, as well as 60,000m3 of timber stock on the quays and in the warehouses, before an average of 60 lorries per day leave the port to distribute to a whole host of merchants in the UK.
Other cargos at the port include fertilizer imports and biomass and grain exports
