Capacity to double at North East Port

Capacity to double at North East Port

23rd February 2012

Capacity is set to increase at the North East Teesport after PD Ports, the Middleborough based ports operator, stepped up its programme to almost double its container handling capacity, with the completion of the ground works.

Teesport is a large sea port located in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the county of North Yorkshire in Northern England and is one of the United Kingdom’s three largest ports. Situated 3 miles to the east of Middlesbrough, Teesport also includes the Port of Hartlepool in the Borough of Hartlepool.

PD Ports has invested over £16 million as part of a £29 million project. The project is set to expand capacity at the terminal from 235,000 to 450,000 TEU which will position Teesport as the second largest container port in the north of the UK.

The expansion of the port, which has been ongoing for a year, has involved the reconstruction of more than 5 hectares of the container terminal area with heavy-duty paving. This has been designed to withstand the increasing loads of container stacks and new rubber-tyre gantry cranes.

The CEO of PD Ports Group, David Robinson, said,

“We are very pleased with the progress so far. We are also well advanced in testing and implementing a new terminal operating system, which remains on schedule to be operational this summer.”

Group chief executive David Robinson also said the port was still working towards plans for a £300m deep sea container terminal to be opened in 2014

“We are very excited to outline the plans we have put in place over the coming months and believe this will allow us to attract a larger customer base as well as extend our reach across the North East, North West and Midlands,” he added.

“As well as creating 150 jobs as a result of the extra capacity, we also intend to tender out the building work to North East firms in order to support the local economy further.”

Once fully complete, it is estimated some 50 new jobs will be created within the terminal together with a further 200 jobs to support the overall supply chain.

Overall, around 250 jobs will be created in the first phase of the plans.

Other expansion plans at Teesport aim to launch a fast gate service in April this year with the aim of reducing waiting times for containers moved from ship to warehouse. This is set to boost services to customers including Asda and Tesco.

Despite the recession and global economic downturn, PD Ports revealed it has continued to see container volumes rise. They believe that the continued promotion of the port-centric concept, through establishing distribution centres and importing goods through ports closer to the final customer, had contributed significantly to its success.

Teesport have also found that by providing services that eliminate road miles travelled from southern ports to northern and Midlands based distribution centres, the environmental footprint and fuel consumption of the entire supply chain is reduced. This is achieved through unpacking, storing and picking goods at the port for onward delivery to stores which directly benefits the supply chain at multiple levels.

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