The Irish Salt Mining Company which is a longstanding customer of Clydeport owner, Peel Ports Group, have in a joint multi-million pound investment completed construction of a de-icing salt storage facility at the Scottish port's King George V Dock.

The 500m2 storage facility will hold a minimum of 40,000 tonnes of road salt and support the maintenance of Scotland’s road networks over coming winters.

The Peel Port Group have entered a long-term deal with the Irish Salt Mining Company which has its privately owned mine in Carrickfergus and Afloat adds, its nearby Kilroot Jetty is where vessels up to 175m in length can berth at facility on the northern shore of Belfast Lough. An average loading rate of around 1,000 tonnes per hour is achieved at the jetty which has a minimum 9m draft.

The shipment of the de-icing road salt to Scotland will be for years to come and the new facility will allow it to be stored in higher volumes than ever before. The first bulk shipments of salt to the new facility have already been completed, and delivery to its customers took place in July.

Jim McSporran, port director at Peel Ports Clydeport, said: “We’re pleased to have completed construction of our new salt storage facility, which can handle increased volumes of road salt, and will help add essential resilience to the road salt market in Scotland.

"We’ve already received our first shipment of salt to the new shed, and our teams are beginning work to ensure we are ready to support road maintenance across West and Central Scotland this winter.

“We look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with the Irish Salt Mining Company on this project, which serves a vital need in Scotland.”

Also known as Salt Sales Co., Irish Salt Mining Company is a key supplier of de-icing rock salt to local authorities across West and Central Scotland, as well as highway maintenance contractors.

The salt mined from Carrickfergus will be loaded on ships from Kilroot and sail directly into the Peel Port Clydeport facility at King George V Docks.

Peel Ports Clydeport staff will unload the salt from the ships arriving at the port and either load out lorries for delivery to customers or add the salt to the stockpile shed.

Thanks to the specialist facilities on site, shipments of 7,000 tonnes can be discharged in approximately 12 hours.

In total, Irish Salt Mining produces around 500,000 tonnes of de-icing rock salt per annum from the mine in Carrickfergus.