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Issue 4 2014 - Freight Business Journal


Heavy load mover moves to Aberdeen


Heavy transport specialist WWL ALS has opened a new office in Aberdeen. ALS, the road transport arm


of the company which recently merged with shipping specialist Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) has taken the opportunity to co-locate in Aberdeen with


other parts of the Wallenius Wilhelmsen group offices. WWL ALS will now have a


local presence to support and develop activities a in the oil and gas and other energy sectors such as wind, wave and tidal, along with chartering and port services.


Chill specialist goes for independence


Nagel Group company Nagel Langdon has moved its Scottish operations from a shared user site in Shieldhall, Glasgow to its own depot at Eurocentral Business Park near Motherwell. In January the chilled


logistics specialist announced the purchase of a 10.22 acre site at Eurocentral and, following conversion work, started operations on schedule on 23


May. As part of a £5.5 million investment, a 54,000sq


ſt


ambient warehouse was converted into a 20,000sq ſt freezer store with racking for up to 1,500 pallets and a 20,000 sq/ ſt chilled cross-docking platform with 12 automatic dock levellers. It has capacity to handle up to 500 pallets per hour as well as chilled storage and picking locations.


///SCOTLAND Forth Ports looks for two-way trade


The Port of Grangemouth is limbering up for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in July, says Forth Ports business development


manager for


Scottish ports Nik Scott-Gray. When the 2012 London Olympic Games finished, all the furniture and fittings from the athletes’ village was packed up into 300 containers and shipped from Tilbury to Grangemouth, where it has been sitting on the quayside in a block stack for the past 18 months waiting to be called off when needed. When the Commonwealth


Games are over, the gear will be packed back into the containers ready to be shipped off to the next Olympics in Rio in 2016. When


the equipment


was moved from Tilbury to Grangemouth in 2012, it was handled by an inducement call but, ironically, Grangemouth now has a regular coast-wise service from Tilbury and the south. BG Freight Line has


started a regular twice a week run from Rotterdam, Felixstowe and Tilbury to Grangemouth. Despite both ports belonging to Forth Ports, this will in fact be Grangemouth’s first regular link to Tilbury, says Scott-Gray. Almost all the rest of


Grangemouth’s container business are short-sea feeder services to the Continent, operated by the likes of Unifeeder, CMA CGM and Samskip. The new service connects


in Rotterdam with MSC’s short- sea services from Italy and is bringing in quantities of Italian goods to England, but for Grangemouth the main interest is the coastwise link it provides


from Tilbury, Scott-


Gray explains. “Scottish trade is still imbalanced so there is always a requirement for empty containers to be brought into Scotland,” he says. “And we’re also trying to stimulate interest with retailers to bring more goods direct into Scotland.” Another growing inbound trade are empty wooden barrels for the whisky industry. Meanwhile, the growth in


Scottish whisky exports seems unstoppable. Demand from China may have eased off a fraction,


“but South America


is becoming a very big market, and markets like France remain strong. But perhaps one of the most interesting ones is India. They developed a taste for Scotch whisky during the days of the British Raj, and given the size of the population, it’s


another huge potential market.” Whisky isn’t the only Scottish


export. The chemical industry centred on Grangemouth and the movement of oil and gas equipment to areas such as West Africa and the Middle East all help to fill boxes out of Scotland, which remains a net exporter in container terms. With


exports


Grangemouth attention to


so strong,


is turning its developing its


import trade, and in particular port centric traffic. “We’re making a really concerted effort in this area,” explains Scott- Gray. “By the end of the year, we plan to build a 200,000sq ft warehousing area adjacent to the container terminal that will include some bespoke space and some general logistics area. The idea is to tap into the 10% of imports into the UK that are destined for Scotland.” The area could also be used


for consolidating exports and, as it will be inside Grangemouth’s ISPS fence, security should be top-notch. The


general logistics area


will be around 50,000sq ft and will


probably comprise two


warehouses fitted with dock- levellers and the option to put in racking. There are no planning permission


issues as the


scheme falls under the port’s permitted development order. The potential


exists to


increase the port centric business still further; there is space for a total of 500,000sq ft in the area that has been earmarked and,


should that


ever be filled, there is still more land available at the east end of the port. “We see the initial development as the catalyst that will stimulate further interest in the concept,” Scott- Gray explains. The port centric idea has


already gained some traction in Grangemouth; builders merchant Travis Perkins, Meyer Timber and fish feed maker BioMar already have operations at Grangemouth, bringing in raw materials


for processing.


“There’s no reason why the port centric concept has to be about containers,” says Scott-Gray. “It can work just as well for general cargo.” General cargo remains


strong in Grangemouth and Forth Ports’ other ports in Scotland. Forth Ports is applying for licences to handle refused-derived fuel (RDF) at Grangemouth and Dundee and it plans to operate a common- user facility. A lot of ship owners are looking for return loads to fill coaster vessels on the east coast


of Scotland. Another


return traffic are logs going to the Baltic. In Rosyth, the DFDS freight-


only ferry to Zeebrugge is doing well with good loadings, and the port is currently also handling material for the second Forth Road Bridge currently under construction. The bridge segments are due to start arriving in the summer. Leith, near Edinburgh is busy


with oil and gas work and agri- bulks while Methil, Burntisland and Kirkaldy are seeing “really good volumes” says Scott-Gray. Dundee, which is built


on solid granite, is ideal for handling heavy jack-up rigs and similar outsize equipment. Heavy haulier Collett Transport has also set up a base there and has handled its first couple of ships, bringing in wind turbines for the onshore Mid Hill development. The company has installed a 110-tonne straddle crane to handle the traffic. Scott-Gray doesn’t


see the


mooted jetty at the former Cockenzie power station as providing competition for any of Forth Ports’ activities in the foreseeable future, pointing out that construction costs would be very high. In any case, the project is only at the concept stage.


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