The first train has arrived at Hutchison Ports London Thamesport bringing steel coil for UK shipping agent and logistics company, The Armitt Group. Operated by DB Cargo, this is the first train to use the Group’s fully integrated 120,000 square feet specialist handling facility at the port.

1,000 tonnes of steel coil was transported by rail from the Tata Steel manufacturing plant in South Wales. The steel is due to leave the port by road, destined for customers throughout Europe.

Commenting on the first train move, Clemence Cheng, Managing Director of Hutchison Ports Europe, owners and operators of London Thamesport, said: "We welcome this first train move for The Armitt Group at our London Thamesport facility. The first of many, this move demonstrates clearly London Thamesport’s prime advantages as a multi-purpose cargo handling port. With an excellent combination of deep-water and multimodal rail and road connections to London, the South East and beyond to the Midlands and North West, London Thamesport is ideally located to serve all its customers’ logistical needs.”

Allan Seedhouse, Managing Director of Armitt, commented: “The Armitt Group are delighted to be delivering a long awaited ‘deep sea connected’ rail connected supply chain solution to the UK steel industry.  With approximately half of the UK steel imports being consumed within the West Midlands our focus has been to deliver a direct rail link from our London Steel Terminal (AMT-South) to our West Midlands rail hub (AMT-Midlands).

“This will enable us to provide an efficient, reliable, robust and cost effective logistics service to our many customers. In doing so, we will greatly reduce our customers emission profiles whilst simultaneously delivering a significant reduction in the CO2 levels generated within the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) region. That’s a win- win to be proud of.”

The Armitt Group’s new facility has been designed specifically for the handling of high quality steel products. This constitutes the first stage of a three stage plan by the Group to develop similar multimodal facilities in the Midlands and North of the UK within the next three years. The specialist facility offers unparalleled multimodal connections for breakbulk cargo handled in the South East of England.