Linde diesel forklifts are being used at Premier Forest Products' sites at Alexandra Dock, Newport, South Wales to handle timber, fibreboard and panels.

Linde Material Handling has supplied a fleet of diesel forklifts to one of the UK's leading independent importers and distributors of timber and panel products.

The nine four-tonne and above diesel counterbalanced trucks are being used at Premier Forest Products' sites at Alexandra Dock, Newport, South Wales to handle timber, fibreboard and panels.

The products, imported from China, Brazil and Europe by road, rail and sea, are supplied to merchants and manufacturers in the UK.

"We need robust, totally reliable and highly efficient forklifts for our operation," says operations manager Gareth Howells.

Howells credits Linde Severnside for putting together an attractive package that includes "fantastic local service level support". Premier Forest Products has access to the expertise of locals at Linde Severnside, and also Linde's network of service centres and engineers in the UK.

The Linde H40D forklifts have front drive axle isolation, making them suitable for driving over the varied surfaces across the 200,000sqft (18,581sqm) of space used by Premier in Newport. According to Linde, independent tests have shown that the forklifts are more fuel-efficient than similar forklifts in the market.

Linde's hydrostatic drive transmission has no clutch, brakes or gears and so operating costs and downtime are minimised.

"Linde's reputation in the industry, and the exceptional quality of the product with key innovative technology designs like hydrostatic transmissions and front axle suspension, made it easy for Premier Forest to choose Linde," says logistics co-ordinator Jason Salter.