Proud past and a bright future

Jul 3 2007 by Evening Gazette

WELCOME to our comment column, in which leading figures from the business community in the region present a thought-provoking view on an issue affecting their company or organisation or the wider community.

Today it’s the turn of Hans Barto, chairman of the Tees and Hartlepool branch of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

The River Tees is the UK’s second largest port and is ranked as one of the top 10 European ports, located on our own doorstep.

The deep water ports of Tees and Hartlepool now handle some 50 million tonnes of cargo per annum and offer a strategic advantage for those trading in today’s increasingly competitive markets.

The figures may be recent, but the Tees has a long history as a cargo-carrying river, dating way back to the 13th century. The port evolved when cargo handling moved down river from Yarm to Stockton to export coal at the end of the 18th century.

As a point of interest, it was in 1825 that the world’s first public railway link was opened from Darlington to Stockton. This line was extended to Middlesbrough in 1828 following the discovery of local coal and iron ore.

These products, together with finished steel products were shipped, initially using Staithes and river berths but from 1842 trade was mainly through Middlesbrough Dock.

The dry cargo handling gradually moved further down river to Teesdock which facility opened in 1966 providing ‘lock-free’ access for ships.

It is now the main dry cargo facility in the port. Middlesbrough dock itself closed in 1980.

However, it was the development of the petrochemical industry in the late 70s that drove the real growth of the port.

Oil from the Ekofisk field comes ashore via a pipeline that makes its landfall between Hartlepool and the River Tees that generates a large quantity of traffic which represents about 50% of cargo through the port.

It also means there are petrochemical companies on site - a Petroplus refinery and other firms which dominate the north side of the river in an area known as Seal Sands.

The south side was predominantly steel based, although just one blast furnace remains - the Corus Redcar operation known as Teesside Cast Products.

The Tees and Hartlepool branch of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers has been proud to be part of this development since 1920 and today is committed to support a successful future.

We as a branch, believe in our future as few ports boast such a prime position for taking advantage of the ever increasing opportunities in European and Scandinavian trades, the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and the ever changing patterns of deep-sea container trans-shipment, with a port community that is eager to take advantage.

Concerning the deep-sea container movement, PD Teesport, the local port authority, is promoting the creation of a new deep sea container “gateway” to the North, locally referred to as The Northern Gateway Development.

Until now the container facilities in the Tees have been servicing the near continent, the Baltic and mainland Europe but now PD Teesport are looking to generate a new deep sea market for the port bringing cargo from the Far East into the UK.

It is recognised that shipping uses less energy and creates less pollution than other forms of transport.

The total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by water transport equates to 25g per tonne-km whilst rail emits 41g and road 160g per tonne-km.

Creating a new deep sea container “gateway” to the North would remove more than 900,000 containers from the UK’s roads, in turn saving a huge number of “food miles” per annum thus reducing congestion on our roads.