250 jobs to come with £29m Teesport expansion
AROUND 250 jobs will be created in the first phase of plans for a £29m expansion of the North East’s biggest port.
Teesport owner PD Ports has said it is about to start work on the £15m first stage of the plan to dramatically increase capacity at the Middlesbrough commercial port - the third biggest by volume in the country.
Teesport’s container terminal capacity will nearly double from 235,000 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) to 450,000 TEU in the initial part of the plan.
It will then look at further phases which may take the capacity of the plant to 650,000 TEU and cost £29m, but the size of the expansion would depend on the extent of the growth of business and the stability of a market which has suffered recently in the global economic slowdown.
Frans Calje, PD Ports’ MD Unitised, said “I am delighted to announce that we will shortly commence work on the expansion of our container handling facilities at Teesport, which signifies a long term investment in our unitised business, on the back of major growth opportunities. This will further improve performance and productivity for the port’s growing number of customers.
“The port’s overall strategy is to expand port wide capacity, including RoRo traffic, to at least 650,000 TEU, which will position Teesport as a major player in the container market.”
He said that in the first six months of this eyar the port had handled 129,000 TEU - 62% up on the same period a year ago.
“PD Ports has, yet again, out-performed the market place in what is still a turbulent time for businesses globally,” he added.
The first phase, which is expected to commence in November and last approximately 10 months, will focus on the reconfiguring of the existing container terminal layout, including all associated civil works and installation of new rubber tyre gantry cranes. This will be supported by the implementation of a sophisticated terminal management system.
Once fully complete, it is estimated some 50 new jobs will be created within the terminal together with a further 200 new jobs to support the overall supply chain.
This will complement the 1,300 jobs that have been directly created over the past five years as a result of portcentric logistics operations in and around the port which has attracted retailers including Tesco and Asda.
Its owner Canadian-owned equity firm Brookfield Asset Management bumped plans for a £300m deep sea container terminal, which had been due to open next year, to 2014.
The company, which bought the Teesport operator for a nominal sum from struggling Australian infrastructure group Babcock & Brown in November.
Share
