£44.5 MILLION HUMBER INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL EXTENSION ANNOUNCED AS UK’S NUMBER-ONE PORT POSTS GOOD FIRST-HALF RESULTS
The UK’s number-one port in tonnage terms, Associated British Ports’ (ABP) Port of Grimsby & Immingham, has enjoyed a good first half of the year, with growth in key trades such as container traffic, coal imports, roll-on/roll-off(ro-ro) traffic and vehicle imports and exports.
Commenting on the port’s success, Nick Palmer, ABP Port Director,
Grimsby & Immingham, said:
“These are exciting times for the Port of Grimsby & Immingham, and we are working with quality customers to build on our position as the UK’s number-one port.Two major riverside developments are set to become operational in mid-2006, representing an investment of over £70 million from ABP.”
It has been a good year for Immingham’s riverside berth, Humber International Terminal, which handled higher volumes of cargo than in the first six months of 2003.The facility reached a major milestone in June when it handled its 20 millionth tonne of cargo just four years after becoming operational in June 2000.
Humber International Terminal predominantly handles coal from some of the UK’s major energy suppliers, and ABP has today (Wednesday, 1 September 2004) announced plans to build a£44.5 million extension to the terminal on the back of term agreements with BHP Billiton, Drax Power Ltd, and EDF Energy.The second-phase development of Humber International Terminal will be capable of handling 7.5 million tonnes of coal each year, and will be connected to the UK’s rail network.Work on this project has already commenced, and the terminal is expected to handle its first shipment of imported coal by mid-2006. In July, the Government gave ABP permission to develop a £35 million riverside terminal at Immingham.The ro-ro terminal, capable of handling three vessels simultaneously, will be built on the back of a 25-year agreement with the port’s largest customer, Danish shipping line DFDS Tor Line.ABP will invest £27.5 million in the new facility, and construction work will commence in Autumn this year.The one millionth Toyota vehicle to be exported through Grimsby – the top vehicle-handling port in northern Britain – was handled at the port in March.Toyota has also expanded its services at Grimsby to include imports of Toyota Yaris cars produced at its plant in the north of France.Grimsby also handled increased volumes of Volkswagen vehicles, with the Volkswagen Group expanding its operations at Grimsby.
ABP Connect Cargoflow – Immingham (formerly Exxtor Terminal), the four-berth ro-ro and lift-on/lift-off terminal at ABP’s Port of Immingham, has undertaken a phased expansion programme to increase its container-handling capacity.In March, a
£1.2 million surfacing project was completed, adding an additional 4.85 hectares of container-storage space. Management of the terminal’s container-storage facilities will be strengthened this month (September) following the installation of ‘Auto Store’, an advanced container-location system. ABP Connect will also take delivery of a new Liebherr P98L gantry crane in Spring 2005 and has recently announced it is to invest a further £2.8 million in two rubber-tyre yard gantry cranes
Immingham’s forest-products trade was given a boost by the opening of a new £1.0 million storage terminal for Rowlinson Timber, supported by a 10-year agreement, in January.In addition, a new service for Europe’s largest solid wood-products company, Stora Enso Timber, recently commenced at Immingham, with Stora Enso Timber UK using Immingham as the UK port of entry for imports of wood products from the Nordic, Baltic and central European countries.ABP is also investing £0.8 million in expanding a storage terminal at Immingham for Humber Timber Terminals, backed by a 10-year agreement.
ABP has also reached a customer agreement at Immingham for the development of a new £0.5 million manufacturing plant for Whitemountain Roadstone Ltd, which will be built subject to Whitemountain receiving planning permission. |
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