Engineering company's blockbusting new deal

Sep 17 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

THE North African port immortalised on the silver screen by Bogart and Bergman has proved the source of a blockbusting £1.5m deal for an engineering firm.

Teesside’s Cleveland Cascades has landed the biggest contract in its history to use its ship-loading equipment to help clean up the port of Casablanca in Morocco.

The deal, which helps to bring the Stockton firm’s annual turnover up to £4m-a-year, will see the company work with the world’s largest exporter of Phosphate, Office Cherifien Phosphates (OCP).

Cleveland Cascades specialises in equipment which loads dusty materials on to ships while minimising air and water pollution.

Phosphate – a constituent of fertiliser – is a dusty material which can cause extremely high levels of dust pollution when loaded on to vessels in the traditional manner.

Cleveland’s specialist loading chute, which can handle 1,250 tons of material per hour, will help clean up the port by cutting back on pollution

The company’s orders are worth about £150,000, meaning the deal is bigger than anything in its history.

Last year the business was commissioned by the port authority in Aqaba, Jordan, to help stop dust generated by the port from settling in the sea and killing coral.

The company has undertaken projects in Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, Israel, Finland, Russia and Australia as well as other parts of Europe.

The company, which employs 30 people, is gearing up for ongoing growth in international markets.

Business development manager Nick Greenwood said: “During 2009 we have made substantial investments in our engineering department, several new people have joined us in the last few weeks.

“This enlarged resource will help us take on additional business but more importantly is enabling us to increase our portfolio of products which we can sell into our existing markets.

“We are in negotiation with two or three global players for multiple installations of equipment in Europe meaning we are confident our recent growth is sustainable.”

The firm’s most recent client, Office Cherifien Phosphates, is the world’s largest exporter of phosphate and employs 20,000 people who help ship 15 million tonnes of product out of Casablanca and across the globe.