Premier Flies Flag for Canada
Portbec Canadian Timber Arrives in Newport

Premier Forest Products has brought one of the first Canadian shipments of timber to be handled at the Port of Newport into the UK since the late 1980's, marking the start of an increase in Canada trading with the rest of Europe via Newport, South Wales. Premier is importing over 15,000 cubic metres of Whitewood from Canada via supplier Portbec Forest Products, which has recently invested in transforming its mill into an export mill. Premier is bringing in only whitewood and logs of superior quality that are from sustainable sources that have been specifically tailored to meet UK quality standards.

Paul Ford, Softwoods Director at Premier Forest Products, said:

"Canadian Timber will be an important product line for us at Premier. The Canadian product is of the highest quality and will be very popular with our customers, as we can already see by the number of forward orders we have had. There is a limited supply of timber from the Baltics and Scandinavia at the moment, and the advantage of the Canadian product is that its availability and depth are so good."

"Portbec is a respected and reliable supplier who has invested a lot of time and money into making their timber highly competitive in terms of price and quality, and we believe this will prove popular in the UK timber marketplace."

Premier Forest Products is the first company to ship Portbec timber into South Wales, which is all NLGA standard 1 and 2 C16 and 24 standard kiln dried whitewood, that has been regularised by planing process with slightly eased edges.

Clive Thomas, Deputy Port Manager for Associated British Ports' (ABP) South Wales Ports, said:

"The re-commencement of Canadian shipments of timber to the UK via ABP's Port of Newport is great news for Newport, South Wales and indeed the whole of the UK. I am very pleased that ABP Newport – which regularly handles shipments of railway locomotives from Canada – is able to continue supporting the UK's trading relationship with the American continent."

Sven Gustavsson, Overseas Export Manager for Portbec, said:

"We are pleased to be working with Premier Forest Products to bring our timber into the UK and European markets. Our long term strategy is to up-weight trade into Europe, and trading via Newport is a great way for us to do this."

Over the past few years, Premier has stepped up its environmental activity, undergoing the rigorous processes that this entails - and have been awarded with FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. To achieve certification companies are audited by an independent accredited Certification Body against the exacting standards of the particular
certification scheme.

Portbec Canadian timber is available in Regularised graded c16, c24 and
FSC certified in the following sizes and lengths:

47x75 2.44 to 4.88
47x100 2.44 to 4.88
47x125 2.44 to 4.88
47x150 2.44 to 4.88
47x175 2.44 to 4.88
47x200 2.44 to 4.88
47x225 2.44 to 4.88

For further information please contact the sales team at Premier:

Telephone: 01633 254422/01213 314010

email: info@premierforest.co.uk