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operations we were doing only


a few years ago,” Hopkinson says. Teesport has always been


unusual among British ports in that its import and export traffics have been well-balanced and this is set to continue thanks to two developments in the local area. One of these is Sirius Minerals which is developing a mine underneath the North Sea off Whitby to extract polyhalite, deposited on the beds of prehistoric seas 260 million years ago and which now forms the basis of its Poly4 fertilizer. The extracted polyhalite will


be transported by underground conveyor through a 23-mile long tunnel beneath the North Yorkshire Moors to a handling facility at Wilton on Teesside where it will be processed and then shipped all over the world by deepsea vessels. Initial estimates are for 12m tonnes a year but that could rise to 20m tonnes a year, says Hopkinson. In similar vein, ICL produces


Polysulphate at its mine in Boulby, a few miles east of Teesport which it rails to the port


Issue 6 2019 - Freight Business Journal


for overseas shipment, although plans for its development have been thrown into doubt following the cancellation of a bond sale. The firm blamed Brexit among other factors for creating uncertainty in the market. Both these export traffics


could provide an attractive counterbalance to imports for bulk ship operators; oſten, the first question a shipowner will ask when tendering for an import load is: ‘Where can I get a reload from?’ The offshore sector is another


promising area for Teesport and the wider Teesside region. Some large pieces have already been shipped through Able


UK’s facility on the Tees and there are exciting opportunities in decommissioning, says Hopkinson, “particularly considering the land bank that we have on the south bank of the river.” PD Ports has been working with the Tees Valley Combined Authority and the South Tees Development Corporation to market the space to the offshore energy industry. Hopkinson explains: “Don’t


forget, the Tees is one of the deepest rivers in the UK – as evidenced by the Redcar Bulk Terminal – and there us a huge amount of land available.” He estimates that whereas the river as a whole was handling 50


million tonnes of traffic a year when North Sea Oil and steel were at their peak, the figure today is probably no more than 30m tonnes, so there is plenty of capacity available. He adds: “We are now working with the local authority on how best to develop the land bank on the south side, which is no less than 4,500 acres, of which nearly 2,700 acres are readily developable brownfield land, with a port right in the middle.” Moreover, he adds, the


local population are keen to see regeneration and happily embrace industry, unlike some parts of the country. PD Ports is also pursuing other


new opportunities, including possible Freeport status, in the event that the UK achieves Brexit and a suitable future legislatory environment. Freeports are a controversial


idea in some


quarters, but PD Ports is taking an apolitical stance and is simply considering the


possibilities


when and if a suitable Brexit is achieved. “What we’re not proposing is attracting business away from another part of the


UK,” Hopkinson explains. “The purpose is to players who are


attract looking


global for


industrial infrastructure in North Europe, given Teesport’s ideal geographical location. A Freeport could give it additional impetus.” While there may be some


effect on the public purse (though many of the fiscal advantages of


freeports can already be


achieved through other customs regimes, though sometimes less conveniently) the upside could be the economic resurrection of the area. Container traffic meanwhile has been surging ahead, and is currently growing at around 20% a year in Teesport compared with a national average of no more than 2-3%, says Hopkinson. To cope with the upsurge, PD Ports has been introducing an automated gate system which was due to go live in the summer. It is more flexible than older versions of such systems used in other ports that tended to impose rigid slot times and were sometimes unpopular


with


truckers. Teesport is also due to take


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delivery of a further three new rubber-tyred gantry cranes later this year, part of an ongoing plan to optimise the efficiency of the terminal and which will keep it on top of traffic levels for the foreseeable future. That said, “We are dusting off the terminal extension plans that we drew up a few years ago,” Hopkinson adds. The automated gate system


also covers the ro ro terminal, which at the time of writing was on the cusp of signing up a new customer on a new trade lane and commodity type. Teesport also runs its own


rail terminal and has added a new twice-daily traffic flow to Doncaster’s iPort, mainly for the benefit of Ikea, a major customer. Services to lowland Scotland were also recently doubled and Hopkinson says that further rail developments are in the pipeline. Looking further ahead, the fact that PD Ports’ owner, Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management has also recently taken over Freightliner and Pentalver parent Genesee & Wyoming could bring future opportunities.


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