EMR Invests £3m in Port of Tilbury

EMR, one of the world’s largest metal recycling companies has made a significant commitment to remaining in its existing Tilbury Dock facility. Not only has it just signed a new 25 year lease with the Port of Tilbury, it will be upgrading its facilities and investing around £3m in improved ship loading equipment.

The site plays an important role in EMR’s activities in the South East of England. It acts as an export hub for the company’s numerous depots around London and handles over 1 million tonnes of UK-produced scrap metal, mainly iron and steel, every year. The processed scrap metal, whose origin could be from end-of-life products as diverse as railway tracks to the steel from shredded cars, is loaded on to vessels that can carry up to 42,000 tonnes at a time and be transported to destinations as far away as India or Korea.

The environmental benefits of metal recycling are enormous and help to conserve the world’s scarce resources. Using recycled metal to produce new steel as opposed to it being made from new ore, saves 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide for every tonne of steel produced. Today in excess of 30% of new steel is produced from recycled metal.

Bob Garwood, EMR’s UK CEO commented “We are delighted that we will be continuing to export from Tilbury which is one of four deep sea export facilities we operate in the UK. The investment we are making in upgrading the facilities will help to ensure that the site is competitive and has the capacity to meet the needs of the group over the next 10 years”.

Peter Ward, Senior Asset Manager from the Port of Tilbury was also pleased that EMR had made the commitment to remain on the site, adding “This announcement is great news for both EMR and the Port of Tilbury. We have a strong relationship with EMR and we are delighted that this will continue through this new lease agreement. This investment is a significant indicator of the position Tilbury has as a major deep sea port for the south east of the UK”.