ISSUE 3 2011


NORTH EAST FEATURE


Teesside-based logistics specialist AV Dawson is forging ahead with preliminary work on its new intermodal terminal after becoming one of only two companies in its sector in the recent round of Regional Growth Fund (RGF) allocations. “Work on the rail terminal at Middlesbrough goods yard has now started,” said managing director Gary Dawson in mid-May. “Eventually we will be putting two new rail lines into the site.”


Rail operator DB Schenker will provide the connection off its existing sidings – a simpler process than a direct main line link. It will be much more than a place to lift boxes on and off trains, says Dawson. “The idea is that we will have regular trains into the terminal, where we will be able to load or devan containers or conventional rail wagons. And while we haven’t yet secured a regular service into the terminal, we are talking to all the main rail freight operators.” Freightliner, DB Schenker and GBRf are all regular operators into Middlesbrough and DRS is also exploring opportunities. It


could be for a single or


multiple users. “One potential idea is moving deepsea boxes from the south coast to the north east, and also serving the north west and the Scottish borders from here,” explains Dawson.


Developments in wagon technology mean that high- cube boxes could be handled easily without major gauge enhancement. AV Dawson also has a pair of ex-British Rail class 08 locomotives, which allow the long-haul rail operators to drop wagons off and send their locos off to do other work rather than tie them up in shunting operations. The rail sidings are only one part of the development that will


give AV Dawson a contiguous, multimodal site extending from its existing quayside in Middlesbrough.


It also includes bulk warehousing for biomass traffic, for which there are an increasing number of enquiries, along


in the North-east which has a very high percentage of public sector reliant employment and has been designated as a low carbon region, and that we are an indigenous North East SME with a history of creating sustainable employment - all areas that are very high on


through the banks or from within its own resources. “We are again investing and looking ahead for the next 10-15 years,” says Gary Dawson. AV Dawson’s offshore related work is primarily with clients in the burgeoning sub-sea markets which are benefiting from the growth in offshore wind, and whilst not conventional freight business in itself its freight clients are set to benefit, Gary Dawson continues. “It has made us a truly 24-hour terminal. We have to be available round the clock, seven days a week for the offshore business and there’s no reason why we can’t translate that into the coaster market too.” Ports capable of handling small vessels that are also available 24/7 must be very rare beasts. Much of the company’s growth is the result of its willingness to offer added-value services.


For


with extension and deepening of the existing quayside. As well as its logistics business, AV Dawson


provides fabrication


accommodation and port services to the offshore industry as well as handling an increasing number of ships carrying feedstocks for biofuels and the renewable energy markets. “The offshore supply vessels can spend two weeks alongside the quay, while the biomass ships are generally becoming bigger, so we need to be able to accommodate the two activities,” explains Gary Dawson. The scheme will create a 200 metre long, 8.5m deep berth. He puts AV Dawson’s success in winning RGF funding to the fact that “we had a project that was ready to go, a track record in delivering on previous investments, the fact that we are encouraging modal shift, we are


the Government’s economic support.”


Investment in infrastructure, even when it does not create large numbers of new jobs in itself, is seen as underpinning growth in the regional jobs market. AV Dawson believes it will provide new freight transport options to help encourage inward investors to build manufacturing and process plants on Teesside. That said, AV Dawson has now bettered its pre-recession performance both in terms of employees - “we lost 32 but are now back to 154” - and turnover (likely to reach £15 million in the current financial year). It must be stressed that only


a relatively small portion of the investment is coming from the Government’s RGF scheme; AV Dawson will finance the bulk of the £9.6m, four-year project


All rails lead to Teesside


More intermodal rail services are being launched from Teesport. A new service for high cube boxes and swapbodies to a yet to be decided north-west England terminal was due to start in May in conjunction with P&O Ferrymasters and rail operator DRS, who will supply the locomotive and wagons. Initially, the service will use conventional wagons and will operate twice- weekly via Scotland – currently the only route cleared for high cube containers on conventional wagons but a five-times a week service using a more direct routing


via Derby and Manchester will be introduced in summer after DRS has taken delivery of a fleet of 50 lowliner wagons. Ultimately, though, says DRS managing director Neil McNicholas, the plan is to use the even more direct Tyne Valley route between Newcastle and Carlisle. DRS has options for further lowliner wagons, he adds, if traffic develops. Low platform wagons which use smaller wheels to


achieve a lower platform


height have been around for some time, but the latest designs


agenda for


instance, the company acquired ships agency Cockfield Knight about a year ago. Around half the ships serviced by the agency in fact use AV Dawson facilities but the intention is to offer choice, not to go into competition with other agencies. “We are very much open to operators using other agencies of course, but it’s another service for those who wish to use it,” Dawson explains.


Another new departure is


The waste-to-energy business in its various forms could well be another such area. Earthly Energy is building a £6m biogas development next to where AV Dawson’s intermodal terminal will be, where it plans to turn grass cuttings, animal slurry and garden rubbish into fertiliser and biogas. Talks are also going on with another similar ‘waste to gas’


further processing of steel for the TATA group. AV Dawson already handles, stores and containerises steel for the Indian-owned giant, but it can now offer services such as cutting, grinding and painting. “It allows TATA to offer steel to finer tolerances and it also reduces movements to and from processors outside of Teesside,” says Dawson. “We’re


always asking our


existing customers, ‘What more can we do?’”


33 AV Dawson forges ahead with multimodal plans


company. Two current opportune pieces of business which demonstrate AV Dawsons diversity include importing hot rolled steel coil from TATA Holland, loading it direct from ship to rail and receiving limestone by rail for the soon to reactivated Redcar blast furnace. A further development is containerised grain for the Ensus bioethanol plant at the Teesside Wilton International site, the largest of its kind in Europe, although it was announced in late May that the facility would close for four months due to weak market conditions. The plant is set to consume around 1 million tonnes of year and AV Dawson is looking at various options for railing in a proportion of the feedstock. It has already invested in a fleet of 100 30’ refurbished bulk boxes in ‘Grainman’ livery. Some of the plant’s feedstock could be moved by coaster, but containers offer a lot of flexibility, can provide short-term storage and can of course be unloaded in all weathers. Being only 8’ 6” high, they can operate anywhere on the rail network without resort to specialist wagons. For the final leg to the plant, AV Dawson has invested in a fleet of lightweight tractor units and trailers that allow an extra couple of tonnes payload.


Forwarders play catch-up as industry diversifies


have outside bearings and are much more trouble-free than their inside-bearing predecessors he says.


P&O Ferrymasters will feed


traffic into Teesport on its North Sea ferry services from Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. The company is an extensive user of rail on the Continent but until now has not set up any permanent services in the UK, despite making one earlier


attempt. A baseload


customer has been secured for the new service but other users will be sought.


The North-east of England is known for many things, but it’s probably fair to say that it isn’t exactly a hotbed of the freight forwarding industry. While the region’s industry as a whole has successfully diversified, it has taken the forwarding sector a while to catch up. That at least is Terry Goldspink’s assessment. After spending a decade and a half working in the business in London and the South he has made the move back to his roots to set up Middlesbrough- based Evolution Forwarding, just three months old at the time of writing. “Business is good here, and it’s bounced back really well after the recession. But one thing we have found is that exporting firms here often don’t use local forwarders.”


aren’t


That is partly because there all that many of them.


Terry Goldspink estimates that there are probably no more than 20-30 in the North-east as a


whole, including local branches of the multinational operators. So the region could be an untapped market. However, the downside of that is that the specialist freight talent needed for a successful company is in relatively short supply. “Also, people tend to remain loyal to their employers here” - so it isn’t always easy to tempt them away to a new company. Evolution plans to offer a range of international shipping, airfreight and forwarding services, along with dangerous goods packing, on which Terry Goldspink is something of an expert. The sale and design of bespoke UN- approved dangerous goods packaging is another promising area. The company is also developing training,


dangerous including goods distance-


learning packages for road, sea and, eventually, airfreight. The North-east still tends to get stereotyped as the home


of really heavy industry like shipbuilding and steel, but it has long since diversified into aerospace, fine chemicals, specialist engineering and electronic control equipment. Much of this does have its roots in the North Sea oil and gas sector, but it is a world away from the old industries of the past. One thing the region does seem to have a preponderance of is fast ‘bullet van’ services. Terry Goldspink believes this may be because of the specialist coating and sealant industry that has grown up around the oil industry. “They need fast, dedicated deliveries into Europe in around 36 hours and it’s all hazardous


material that can’t


fly on passenger aircraft, even if there was space available from local airports – which there isn’t. Apart from the Emirates service from Newcastle, there is virtually no airfreight capacity available here.”


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  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36