NEWPORT Docks owner ABP and dock-based firm Sims Group have announced joint plans to invest £10.5 million at the site.

Earlier this month the Assembly announced £1.72 million to improve freight-handling facilities.

And encouraged by the investment, the two firms have announced their own plans - with around £7 million coming from Sims and £3.5 million from ABP.

The Australian-owned Sims Group has become known for its Newport fridge recycling business, but it is actually running a broad-based scrap metal operation here which is expanding and creating new jobs.

Managing director Tom Bird said: "Our Newport export facility has become one of our most important locations.

"Expenditure on a gantry crane and new processing equipment will transform Sims' Newport operation into a state-of-the-art metals recycling facility."

Budha Majumdar, ABP's South Wales ports director, said: "Sims is an established and growing customer of ours at Newport.

"In the last two years its throughput has more than doubled.

"ABP's investment lays the groundwork for Sims' expansion and lifts the ceiling for more growth in the future."

Sims has signed a 20-year agreement with ABP to expand its operations.

The port improvements will include the refurbishment of a rail link to bring in raw materials, the enhancement of the electric supply, a new gantry crane and processing equipment and a further six acres of storage.

A new rail line will run alongside the Sims site and it will carry 600,000 tonnes of scrap metal every year.