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Displaying items by tag: New Japanese Customer

#ports - The Irish Sea Port of Silloth operated by Associated British Ports (ABP) has handled the first delivery of wood pulp for its new Japanese customer.

According to ABP, the Futamura Group manufacture cellulose and polymeric films for the packaging industry who have a major production site in Cumbria where the north-west English port is located.

Wilson Blyth (see Dun Laoghaire call) delivered the 2,500 tonne wood pulp to Silloth, having loaded the import in South America. The cargo will be transported to the company’s production site in Wigton, Cumbria, which employs around 270 people. The wood pulp will be used to make packaging films for foodstuffs such as sweets, tea, coffee and snack products.

Carl Bevan, ABP Divisional Port Manager – North West, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Futamura Group as a new customer at our Port of Silloth and look forward to working together to support a prosperous future for the Cumbrian economy.”

Tom Ismay, Procurement Manager at Furtamura, said: “It has been a very smooth transition working with ABP and we are glad that our local infrastructure means we can easily bring goods in via such a convenient port. One bulk ship has taken approximately 200 lorry loads off the road. Sustainability is important to Futamura and we are working hard to make changes where we can."

Published in Ports & Shipping

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).