Castle Cement's terminal at Avonmouth near Bristol came into operation in May 1989 and was built to handle imported cement, bridging the gap between UK production and demand.

Avonmouth has off-loading facilities rated at 800 tonnes per hour and is equipped with bagging and palletising plants which enable it to supply customers with both bulk and packed cement. It offers deep water berths, unaffected by tides, and can therefore accommodate vessels of up to 30,000 tonnes.

The terminal has an annual throughput facility of 250,000 tonnes. Each of the two silos located on site can store 15,000 tonnes, and a 50 tonnes per hour bagging plant enables the terminal to supply both bulk and packed cement to its customers.

To ensure that the terminal provides a consistent product and that imported cement meets British Standards, the blend and strength of cement samples from the terminals are tested on a weekly basis in Castle's laboratories at Ketton in Rutland .