Containers

Hull’s container traffic is handled primarily at Queen Elizabeth Dock by Hull Container Terminal, which handles around 300,000 TEUs per year for operators such as Samskip, EuroAfrica Shipping Lines, Bulcon, OOCL and Finnlines. The terminal provides 300 m of quay, enabling three vessels to be berthed simultaneously. Over 7.5 ha of storage is available for all types of container goods, including refrigerated units and facilities for hazardous goods. In addition, groupage facilities are available and the terminal caters for full and partial container loads.

Dry Bulks

Substantial investment by both ABP and its customers has enhanced bulk-handling facilities for dry-bulk trades at the Port of Hull. A range of dry bulks is handled at the port, including aggregates, agribulks, cement, chemicals, coal, cocoa, biomass and grain.

Humber Sand and Gravel Ltd has a terminal based at Hull’s Alexandra Dock, from which it supplies the local construction industry. Harding Cargo Handling Ltd also handles aggregates, as well as other dry-bulk traffic, from its terminals in Alexandra Dock and Albert & William Wright Docks. Stema Shipping (UK) Ltd has a terminal in Queen Elizabeth Dock for handling aggregates imported from Norway.

New Holland Bulk Services Ltd operates a terminal in King George Dock, which handles animal feed and other dry bulks, with its own 28-tonne capacity floating crane and weigh tower. The terminal can handle vessels of up to 30,000 dwt, and the berth is linked to a 40,000-tonne store by a direct conveyor. At the end of 2005, a new 6,200 sq m shed situated in King George Dock was constructed for NW Trading Ltd for the storage of dry-bulk cargoes.

Titan Cement (UK) Ltd has a specialised facility for handling quality-assured cement from Greece, while grains, such as wheat and barley, are stored at a specialist silo facility in King George Dock. The silo, which is operated by Frontier Agriculture Ltd, has a capacity of 60,000 tonnes, and cargoes are exported to a variety of European destinations.

Forest Products

Hull is the UK’s largest softwood timber-handling port, benefiting from a prime location on the main softwood timber trade-routes from Northern Europe, the Baltic states and Scandinavia. The port handles in excess of 1.5 million cu m of timber each year and offers regular liner services carrying forest products.

In recent years, ABP has made considerable investments to improve timber-handling facilities at the port. When it opened, the state-of-the-art Finland Terminal greatly increased the port’s capacity for handling forest products. Believed to be one of the largest facilities of its kind in the UK, Finland Terminal offers more than 70,000 sq m of covered storage and is a hub for Finnish paper producers. In the last few years, ABP has continued to expand the terminal to cater for the increasing demand for covered storage. ABP recently invested a further £4.8m in the terminal, for two 45 m extensions to the existing paper-storage shed, the construction of a new 6,500 sq m storage shed and additional paving for open storage.

Considerable areas of covered and open storage, plus value-added services such as timber-treatment and sawmills, are also available on the port estate. Timber traffic is also handled at the specialist terminals operated by Ahlmark Shipping UK Ltd, Global Shipping Services Ltd, Rix Shipping Co Ltd, Harding Cargo Handling Ltd, North Sea Lumber (Sales) Ltd, Finnforest UK Ltd and Leafe & Hawkes Ltd.

Fresh Produce & Perishables

Hull’s contribution to the UK fishing and fish-processing industries was enhanced by the recent development of the Fishgate fish-auction market, a high-tech fish-handling facility based at Albert & William Wright Docks, which provides real-time linkage to other European fish markets.

Temperature Controlled Solutions, a 24,000 cu m high-specification cold-storage facility operated by ABP, is equipped with 8,750 pallet spaces and has blast-freezing capability for freezing products down to -18°C. Andrew Johnston Knudtzon Ltd offers 56,000 cu m of cold storage in Hull, with a quayside facility capable of handling over 1,000 pallets per day.

Cocoa – both bagged and bulk – is handled at Hull, which is one of the UK’s principal cocoa-import centres. The port provides dedicated storage facilities for major producers, such as Rowntree, Nestlé and Cadbury.

General Cargo

With a wide selection of trading routes and versatile cargo-handling facilities, Hull has a reputation for being one of the East Coast’s principal ports for general cargo. Regular liner services operate between Hull and the South Pacific, carrying a range of commodities including steel, project cargoes, casework, bulk and bagged cargoes, metals and food products. Storage facilities for general cargo include over 40 transit sheds covering 230,000 sq m and 65 ha of open storage, with groupage services and cargo-consolidation available.

Liquid Bulks

BP’s chemical plant at Saltend is Hull’s largest liquid-bulk complex and is one of the world’s largest producers of acetic acid. The plant contains a gas-fired power station and includes new production lines for vinyl acetate and ethyl acetate.

Liquid-bulk handling at Hull plays an increasingly important role at the port, which has seen a significant rise in imports of edible oils over recent years. AarhusKarlshamn, based in King George Dock, imports edible oils for its refinery, which produces, among other products, cooking oils, specialist oils and ice-cream fats.

Other major liquid-bulk customers include Tate & Lyle, which operates from two sites at King George Dock and offers common-user tank storage for petroleum products and chemicals, as well as molasses. International Bulk Liquids Ltd operates a storage facility on Alexandra Dock, and Westway Terminals operates a tank farm on King George Dock for the storage of imported molasses for the animal-feed industry.

Minerals & Ores

Operated by Hull Bulk Handling Ltd, Kingston Terminal at Queen Elizabeth Dock handles coal and other mineral bulks and offers over 17 ha of storage linked to the quayside via a covered conveyor.

Passengers & Cruises

Hull is an increasingly popular port of call for cruise vessels, providing excellent access to the nearby tourist attractions of Yorkshire. The modern Rotterdam Terminal, a multi-million-pound first-class passenger terminal constructed to accommodate P&O Ferries’ new super-cruise ferries, is a comfortable and appealing environment for passengers.

Hull also provides the Humber’s only passenger service across the North Sea to Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. Each year, over one million passengers pass through the port on P&O Ferries’ daily sailings.

Ro-Ro

Ro-ro traffic accounts for the largest proportion of the port’s annual throughput. Accordingly, facilities have been greatly expanded in recent years. There are 11 ro-ro berths in the enclosed docks and one on the riverside. The Rotterdam Terminal accommodates Pride of Hull and Pride of Rotterdam – the new super-cruise ferries operated by P&O Ferries on the Hull–Rotterdam crossing, while the ro-ro berth at Finland Terminal can handle ro-ro and lo-lo cargoes simultaneously.

Steel & Other Metals

Hull Steel Terminal, the UK’s first fully enclosed steel-handling facility, provides all-weather working. The ISO 9001: 2000-accredited terminal provides ship’s agency, cargo-handling, storage and distribution, and offers 4,500 sq m of covered storage and a further 6,000 sq m of open storage for non-weather-sensitive steel products. Steel products are also handled at a number of other berths within the port. At Queen Elizabeth Dock, Sims Group UK operates a recently built facility that handles recycled-metal cargoes.

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