Associated British Ports (ABP) have invested in new vehicle handing facilities at the Port of Immingham to meet customer demands.
The half a million-pound infrastructure in the Humber International terminal (HIT) will mean when cars are discharged off the vessel, they are sent to a first point of rest facility near the berth. The terminal was originally built to handle coal, but as the UK coal usage rightly declines, so ABP have looked to plug gaps in the shipping schedule with car ships, to help meet customers’ needs.
As part of this vehicle growth, ABP have successfully carried out two back-to-back vehicle stevedore operations of 4,000 units.
Simon Bird, Regional Director of the Humber ports said: “We have taken on this stevedoring role and have proven we can handle it and very much look forward to expanding our automotive services.
It’s part of ABP’s commitment to helping our customers and we continual look to invest in our infrastructure to accommodate growing industry demand. The Humber is a major player in the automotive market, and we continue to invest to ensure we can handle larger vessels.”
Kia UK Ltd. Supply Chain General Manager Awais Ajmal said: “A big thanks to ABP for stepping in at short notice on several of our recent deliveries. This has allowed Kia UK to maintain deliveries to our valued customers during a critical time for new registrations. Due to a high level of back orders for Kia vehicles ABP prevented disruption in our time sensitive supply chain."
The ports of Grimsby and Immingham serve the European and Far East automotive markets being ideally placed in the middle of the UK and central to serving the north and south of the country.
In 2025 it will be fifty years since Grimsby was chosen as the base for the first vehicle imports with Volkswagen. Since then, the Humber has grown to be the UK number one automotive distribution centre in the UK. The £26 million Grimsby River Terminal (GRT) is a two-berth facility capable of handling vessels carrying up to 3,000 vehicles.
Over 800,000 cars a year pass through ABP Humber ports reducing transport time and costs by streamlining the process. The addition of ABP stevedores offers customers a complete supply chain solution should it be needed.