While 2020 had its obvious challenges, and we closed Raynes quarry for a period of time, we did move as much material into London by sea freight as we did in 2019 (over 75 KT).

November volumes were the highest into London on record and included the first MOT ships since July 2012. The local Commercial team, and especially Rick Lewis, have grown a large MOT business in a matter of months to serve the large construction projects in and around The Capital.

The increased focus on sea freight and continued growth has been supported by Nicola Drabble who, in addition to her Rail responsibilities, has taken on the role of Sea Freight Coordinator. This has given the Supply Chain team a greater awareness of the upcoming demands and, while ships recently have been harder to fix due to the weather, allowed them to plan further into the future over our sea freight strategy. This is an area we hope to continue to improve volumes and secure water-based capacity to supplement our other successful bulk freight options.