ISSUE 2 2010


NORTH EAST


continued from previous page party operator, in order to


meet its customers’ requirements. But 85-90% of its volume still goes through Teesport. There would be no problem


finding extra space within the Teesport dock estate for new business. “At the moment, there’s a million square feet, along with perhaps 300 acres of Corus land that could become available.” Even if slab making was revived at Redcar, reconfiguring the operation could still release significant amounts of space, says Robinson. All this is a significant


achievement for a port whose main function was to serve local heavy industry until a few years ago. “And the business is continuing to expand and we expect that within the next 3-5 years we will end up with around


3m sq ft of warehousing within a ten-mile radius of the port.” The growth of warehousing


has been matched by regular container services, especially with the decision of Finnish-owned short-sea operator Containerships to make Teesport the interchange hub between its existing Baltic services and the Mediterranean routes it acquired when it took over Contaz. “Also, with the arrival of the Unifeeder common feeder service in June, along with the existing Feederlink, BG and Samskip services, we have achieved a critical mass. If you also consider that we have dedicated feeders for MSC, K Line and CMA CGM, we have gone from having seven to 20 container vessel calls a week in a very short space of time.” Unifeeder’s thrice-weekly will open up the German market


Meeting of the ways


When Finnish-owned short- sea operator Containerships was looking for a hub port to connect its existing Baltic services with its new routes to the Mediterranean - following its acquisition of Contaz - it chose Teesport rather than one of the major continental hubs like Rotterdam. Containerships (UK) director


Charles Patton explains: “We had the frequency here in Teesport, which meant quick connections and we also had the capacity – we were able to do what we wanted to do when we wanted.” It also helped that the UK had plenty of traffic to and from the Med.


Containerships has operated


its services to the Baltic from Teesport since the mid-1960s, and today calls include Helsinki, St Petersburg, Klaipeda and Riga, served three times a week. The Med service, which calls at Piraeus, Istanbul, Izmir and Rades in Tunisia, is currently operating every ten days using two 1400teu ships and a smaller chartered one, but there are plans to increase frequency. “It’s an interesting departure


for us,” says Charles Patton. Traffic from the UK includes chemicals, food and beverages and pharmaceuticals, with other chemicals, machinery clothing and textiles coming back.


Putting theory into practice


Many people are talking about port-centric logistics – Gary Smith, MD of Teesside operator Global Transport Logistics puts it into practice. “We do use other ports, but 95% of it comes through Teesport.” There are many advantages


to doing so, he explains – from a cost, environmental and reliability standpoint. “It helps customers meet their environmental targets, but it also reduces the risk of late deliveries because mileage by road is reduced and Teesport doesn’t suffer from congestion.” The only time penalty is on the seafreight movement, and that can often be recouped. “It can also sometimes be a struggle to find haulage capacity at the southern ports,” adds Gary Smith. “That’s rarely a problem up here.”


With Teesport now enjoying


a good range of feeder services, both from other UK ports and the big continental hubs, there is little time-penalty compared with using Felixstowe or Southampton and it can be considerably cheaper. Previously, Gary Smith worked for a major retailer and found that he could save £4-500 per container by switching to the northern port. In fact, this was the inspiration


for GTL. “At the time, no one was offering the whole package. Initially, we had to get over a hurdle because we were selling a new concept to our customers, but one good thing about the recession is that it has challenged financial directors to look for cost efficiencies. We’ve been able to bring them to the table to talk about regional ports.”


Other operators whose boxes


can regularly be found passing through Teesport include NYK, China Shipping, Zim, Evergreen and Maersk; most of the world’s major global operators, in fact. “But we still feel that there’s


a lot more scope, and we hope that in three years’ time, the port as a whole will be handling 600,000teu a year, which would put us on a par with Liverpool and Tilbury. Not top of the table, but a Premier League port – and unlike Newcastle United, we would expect to remain in the top division.” There has also been something


via Hamburg and also serve Rotterdam. PD Ports has also been marketing its Logical Link service whereby it buys space on other


operators’ short-sea services. This has been crucial in helping to attract some major customers. It has also secured the first Coastal Shipping Grant in the UK.


of an uplift in the port’s export trade with the reopening of the Artenius chemical plant by Korean-based Lotte group and Sabic’s opening of a polyethylene plant. There have also been some


13 Feeder lines flock to Teesport terminals


exports of scrap iron - material which used to feed the Corus slab plant at Redcar. But David Robinson is anxious


not to come over as over-bullish with all this talk of container growth. There is no doubt that closure of the Redcar slab plant has been a serious blow to the regional economy and indeed its loss has cut total cargo tonnage on the Tees river by 20-25%, which does have implications for PD Ports’ earnings from its activities as port authority for the Tees. Some port jobs have been lost as a result. “But, I hope that in time growth in the container sector will replace the loss of Corus.” At the time of writing, hopes were rising that a Far Eastern buyer might step in to revive the steel making operation.


Northern Gateway opens up again


PD Ports is still pursuing the Northern Gateway plan to create a major container terminal on the Tees, insists David Robinson. It will however be a staged approach, he says. First, he would like business on the port’s existing footprint to grow to around 600,000teu, “which will be a far better platform to go for a deep water quay.” He expects to dust off the Northern Gateway plans “in about 2013.” Teesport’s objective isn’t 12-14,000teu ships, even though a


couple of lines have hinted that they would consider putting their largest vessels into the new terminal. “But 8,000teu is more realistic and would still be a major increase over our current maximum, which is around 3,200teu and then only at a push.” Feeder ships


and vessels on ‘medium sea’ trades could easily grow to 4000, 5000, even 6,000teu, “which would just about be the right size for us,” says Robinson. Deepening to 14 metres could be achieved with a relatively


short dredge; the Harbour Revision Order and planning permission are all in place, though the latter will need to be extended. The Northern Gateway is an essential part of the port’s long-term


growth strategy, Robinson explains. “At the moment, a significant proportion of our business is traffic that needs to come to Teesport but we want to increase the amount of national business. At the moment, Asda distribute nationwide and Tesco to a large part of the North.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32