Skip to main content

UK: FM Conway and Nynas agree Thames River bitumen storage deal

Infrastructure services contractor FM Conway has signed a deal to supply Nynas, a UK provider of bitumen binder, with bitumen from its recently rebuilt Imperial Wharf terminal. The facility is on the River Thames in the town of Gravesend, near the mouth of the river and down river from London. FM Conway invested around €3.5 million to refurbish the terminal which was finished last September. The terminal has the capacity to dock and store up to 7,500tonnes of bitumen. Under the deal, Nynas will bas
April 15, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Infrastructure services contractor FM 2329 Conway has signed a deal to supply 294 Nynas, a UK provider of bitumen binder, with bitumen from its recently rebuilt Imperial Wharf terminal.

The facility is on the River Thames in the town of Gravesend, near the mouth of the river and down river from London.

FM Conway invested around €3.5 million to refurbish the terminal which was finished last September. The terminal has the capacity to dock and store up to 7,500tonnes of bitumen.

Under the deal, Nynas will base bitumen tankers permanently at the terminal for delivery to key locations in London and across the south of England.

Conway said the deal gives Nynas “a secure, cost-effective source of bitumen” in the south east of the UK, complementing its existing facilities in the Wirral, Dundee and Teesside.

FM Conway, established more than 50 years ago, has its own recycling facility at Dartford and an asphalt plant in Erith, both towns upstream from the renovated Imperial Wharf terminal facility.

David Smith, development director at FM Conway, said: “Achieving cost and carbon-efficiency when supplying projects in the south of England has always been challenging for our industry, with many sources of key materials located in the Midlands or the north.”

“This new supply point means we can respond more rapidly to our clients’ needs, in particular in urgent and emergency situations,” said Keith Sherlock, commercial director at Nynas. “It also makes the transport of bitumen to southern England sites far more cost-effective and environmentally friendly, which is crucial for us in the long term.”

Nynas manufactures its products at refineries in Europe as well as North and South America. Three of their facilities – Nynäshamn and Gothenburg in Sweden and Harburg in Germany – are owned by Nynas. The refinery in Eastham, in the UK, is a joint venture with Shell.

In January 2014, Nynas took over a base oil plant in Harburg with an annual production of specialty oils up to 355,000tonnes. This represents a 40% increase in the company's supply capability of naphthenic specialty oils.

Other Nynas production plants, such as in Antwerp in Belgium, are linked to the company through cooperation agreements. Nynas also has access to refining capacity in the Netherlands Antilles.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Temporary ProLight solar lighting illuminates the UK’s A14 upgrade
    January 9, 2019
    The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme has become the first UK project to use temporary solar - instead of diesel - lighting. The A14 is the UK’s biggest road construction project with a budget of nearly US$2 billion to upgrade 34km of trunk road between Cambridge and Huntingdon with completion set for December 2020. The A14 Integrated Delivery Team, working on behalf of project client Highways England, is the largest user in the country of year-round temporary solar trailer-transported lights.
  • Innovative high performance asphalt technology
    February 14, 2012
    An authority replaces container wharf pavement damaged by forklift loads in world's first commercial use of high-performance asphalt base course. By Paul Fournier
  • JCB’s historic fleet deal
    December 4, 2013
    JCB has won one of the biggest single orders in its history after securing a deal for 900 machines worth more than €61 million (£53 million) from leading UK plant hirer Fork Rent. The deal for Loadall telescopic handlers cements Ipswich, eastern England-based Fork Rent’s position as the UK’s biggest hirer of the product and with the most modern fleet of this type of machine. The machines are manufactured at JCB's World HQ at Rocester, Staffordshire, central England, and all are to be delivered before the en
  • Upgrade of Lánchíd Bridge by May
    December 23, 2020
    Four tenders in for work on Budapest’s Chain Bridge - Széchenyi Lánchíd.