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Scots get back to business


The corona crisis has hit freight operators north of the border as heavily as anywhere in the country. But they are determined to bounce back.


Grangemouth has got it all, says Forth Ports


Forth Ports is keen to make Grangemouth into a hub, not just for short-sea shipping, but for all modes of transport, says chief operating offi cer Stuart Wallace. The Falkirk region around the port has a strong logistics industry with many distribution centres and the idea would be to off er cross- docking between ships, trucks and trains. Wallace has ambitions to


develop the port into Scotland’s freight hub for both international and domestic traffi c. For instance, fi rms using


distribution centres or near Grangemouth docks would no


longer have to decide whether their products were destined for the domestic or international market – they would be able to make that choice at a later stage of the process. Similarly,


retailers could


combine products coming from overseas suppliers with domestic ones and make single deliveries. Forth Ports is currently


extending the rail terminal at Grangemouth to take longer trains and is in the process of building another 100,000sq ſt distribution centre to develop the concept. The port already has frequent short- sea links with ports in the north- west Continent and now, a regular


Unifeeder route to and from London Gateway. Customers too are keen


to embrace intermodalism. In Scotland, almost uniquely for the UK, many of the major supermarkets already use rail to deliver goods to stores in the northern part of the country. Grangemouth could have a part to play in these fl ows too. Grangemouth has meanwhile


continued to enhance its container handling capability, new straddle carriers allowing the port to make the shiſt from three- to four-high stacking and freeing up space for more logistics activities. Business


has held up well, including exports – unlike most parts of the UK, container freight fl ows in Scotland are reasonably well balanced, with alcoholic beverages, dairy products and other food along with chemicals sent to all parts of the world. Food – or, at any rate agriculture –


plays an important part in another of part of the Forth Ports portfolio, at Rosyth, which sits astride the motorway network just off the Forth Bridge, only a few miles from Edinburgh. The port – which until fairly recently hosted Scotland’s only regular international ro ro service and more latterly played a key role in moving in components for the new Forth Road Bridge – has now emerged as Scotland’s main agri-hub, with 200,000sq ſt of storage area now available. State- of-the-art equipment such as a new mobile harbour crane and the fi rst


Samsung Eco Hopper in Europe have boosted productivity while cutting dust emissions to zero. Forth Ports


has encouraged


customers to club together so that they can move larger loads. For instance, local millers are now importing wheat in 10,000-tonne loads into Rosyth rather than 2,000-tonne batches, allowing them to use bigger ships which are much more economical on a per- tonne basis. Rosyth’s agri trade has held up


well during the Covid crisis, adds Wallace: “Tonnages have been unaff ected; if anything, they’ve gone up a bit.” Forth Ports’ Dundee, meanwhile,


recently successfully completed its fi rst decommissioning of a huge FPSO (off shore storage facility) and is looking to gain similar work, says Wallace. “We now have a strong supply chain in Dundee for


the services needed for this type of work and we’re embarking on a £40m investment in another quayside and a substantial area of land alongside for off shore and decommissioning, which should be completed in 2021” he explains. Indeed, Dundee already has


work for the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) off shore wind farm lined up, along with “a pipeline of enquiries” from both the off shore and decommissioning industries. Dundee also supports the


North Sea oil jack-up rig operators, providing berths and space for operators such as Valaris and, in late May, there were a record six rigs in the port – although there is still room for more, Wallace adds. With North Sea activity now winding down, rig decommissioning can be expected to increase, though no one can


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