ABP’S SOUTH WALES PORTS POST POSITIVE HALF-YEAR RESULTS

ABP’S SOUTH WALES PORTS POST POSITIVE HALF-YEAR RESULTS

The first six months of the year have seen cargo handled at Associated British Ports’ (ABP) South Wales Ports rise by more than five per cent over the same period in 2005. The Ports of Swansea, Port Talbot, Barry, Cardiff and Newport handled 8.1 million tonnes of cargo in the first six months of 2006 – an increase of 418,000 tonnes.

So far this year, ABP’s Port of Newport has handled 1.6 million tonnes of cargo, including a shipment of five Class-66 diesel locomotives. Discharged at the port’s South Dock in March 2006, the locomotives, each weighing 126 tonnes, formed part of an £80 million investment by Metronet Rail, who are responsible for the maintenance of the majority of the London Underground network. Newport is the UK’s premier port for locomotive handling, importing almost the entire UK stock of more than 300 Class-66 locomotives between 1998 and 2000.

WestBank Timber Ltd’s timber-handling operation at Newport was boosted this year following a £100,000 investment by ABP. The investment saw a number of modifications being made to the port’s Transit Shed Number 4 – redundant internal structures were removed, new shed-lighting equipment and fencing were installed and the shed’s surface drainage was improved. Complementing ABP’s refurbishment of the shed, WestBank Timber has undertaken significant capital investments to facilitate the expansion of their operations at the port.

The Port of Newport handled 690,000 tonnes of coal in the first six months of 2006. In order to accommodate these coal volumes, ABP extended the railway siding and installed a rail weighbridge at the port’s Coal Terminal and refurbished the Atlantic Coal Siding to serve as a support spur.

Compared to the first six months of 2005, cargo volumes at the Port of Cardiff rose by four per cent to 1.3 million tonnes.Steel volumes, in particular, have been strong this year, partly due to an increase in output at Celsa (UK) Ltd’s wire-products mill and smelter, located next to the Cardiff port estate. Timber volumes, imported through the port from the Baltic states and Scandinavia, also continued to rise in 2006.

Two of the Port of Cardiff’s three liquid-bulk terminals have recently changed hands and are now under the control of new operators – Inver Energy (UK) Ltd, which specialises in the supply of fuel oil to industrial customers, and HCB Storage Ltd, which provides storage facilities for imported liquid bulks. Both terminals are located at the port’s Queen Alexandra Dock and are expected to generate additional revenue for the port.

Operating the container terminal at the Port of Cardiff, Coastal Containers Ltd has reported positive half-year results. Coastal Containers operates short-sea services to Dublin and Belfast, and a regular service between the UK and the Mediterranean.

The Port of Barry continued to see growth during the first half of 2006, particularly in dry-bulk and inter-modal rail-traffic volumes. Dow Corning Ltd and Ineos Chlor Ltd, both of whom handle liquid chemicals, also witnessed a strong first-half performance.

ABP’s Port Talbot handled nearly 4.6 million tonnes of cargo in the first half of 2006, an increase of nine per cent over 2005 figures. The port’s Tidal Harbour is used predominantly by Corus to import coal and iron ore, while the inner dock handles processed slag, general bulks and steel for third-party customers.

The first six months of the year saw the Port of Swansea handle over 370,000 tonnes of cargo, including the single largest consignment of forest products to be handled in South Wales. The shipment eclipsed the region’s previous single largest shipment of timber, which was also imported through the port, in 2005. Shipped from the Far East aboard the vessel Thor Commander for port customers RKL Plywood UK Ltd (RKL), the 19,000 cu m consignment included RKL’s first batch of plywood certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). Forest products endorsed by the FSC are guaranteed to have been managed in an “environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable manner.”

RKL, who has been a port customer since 1999, has a 15-year agreement with ABP to ship guaranteed volumes of timber-products through the port. In order to accommodate these volumes, ABP invested £1.7 million to extend the port’s Forest Products Terminal and construct RKL’s new UK headquarters at the port.

In July 2006, Swansea welcomed the first of a number of baled wood-pulp shipments to the port,with the arrival of m.v. Dollart and her 3,200-tonne cargo from Skutskar, Sweden. The vessel’s cargo was destined for the most modern fully integrated paper mill and conversion plant in Europe, located at Baglan Energy Park, Port Talbot.

Swansea continues to handle timber and pulp-log cargoes for Merlwood Timber Ltd and Tilhill Forestry Ltd who has, on occasions, utilised ABP’s TimberLink service – an environmental initiative designed to reduce timber movements by road and increase the use of sea transport – to handle its forest-product shipments from the Port of Kyle in north Scotland.

Over the course of 2006, 93,000 tonnes of coated-steel gas pipes were shipped from Germany by PBC Shipping Ltd to the Port of Swansea’s D Shed Wharf. The pipes will form part of the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline currently being built, which extends from Milford Haven to Aberdulais and Abergavenny, and links Transco’s LNG import facility with its gas-transmission system.

Scrap-metal volumes at the Ports of Newport, Cardiff and Barry have continued to rise this year on the back of steady growth experienced by port customers Sims Group, European Metal Recycling and Dunn Brothers (1995) Ltd. The three ports handled 375,000 tonnes of scrap metal during the first half of the year, more than double last year’s volumes for the same period.

At the beginning of the year, ABP’s South Wales Ports received Port Environmental Review System (PERS) accreditation from the EcoPorts Foundation, and marketing efforts to promote the Ports of Cardiff and Swansea as cruise destination were stepped up.

ABP’s South Wales Ports all received PERS accreditation at a ceremony held at Queen Alexandra House, Port of Cardiff, in February this year. Herman Journeé, Chairman of the EcoPorts Foundation, presented Peter Barham, ABP’s Sustainable Development Manager, and Captain Phil Holliday, Marine Manager for ABP South Wales, with PERS certificates. The accreditations provide independent verification of ABP South Wales’ achievements in environmental-port management.

ABP’s new cruise brochure highlights the attractions of Cardiff and Swansea to cruise operators. According to a report entitled Wales and the Atlantic Arc: Developing Ports, by Professor Stuart Cole of the Wales Transport Research Centre, each visiting cruise passenger is likely to spend £80-100 per day ashore, providing opportunities for local businesses in the retail and tourism sectors.

ABP South Wales continues to work with the Wales Tourist Board and a number of port, tourism and Government partners to promote and publicise Wales as a cruise destination. The partnership,named Cruise Wales, has started to pay dividends, with the Port of Swansea scheduled to handle a turnaround cruise call later this year.

John Fitzgerald, ABP Port Director for the South Wales Ports, commented on the region’s performance:

“ABP South Wales’ half-year results are very encouraging indeed. The ports have continued to strengthen their core businesses, while successfully diversifying into lucrative secondary markets. I am confident that the five South Wales Ports will continue to grow throughout the remainder of the year and beyond.”

ABP’s Cardiff-based UK Dredging (UKD) has established itself as a major player in the dredging market, offering a wide range of dredging services to ABP’s ports and third-party customers.

Over the last six months, UKD has undertaken a number of new third-party contracts, as well as signing a new term agreement with the Port of Blyth, Northumberland. The vessels UKD Cherry Sand and UKD Marlin start maintenance dredging work at the port’s entrance this month.

26th September 2006

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