Port’s investment in expansion and development over decade

Jan 15 2008 By The Journal

WHAT, or where, is a port? Easy answer, you might think – it’s a place where ships come to be loaded or unloaded. But that’s only part of the story. To put a port truly into context, it is a critical point in many supply chains.

If the port doesn’t deliver, then the supply chain breaks. And to take the story further, who says a port’s involvement stops at the quayside?

The Port of Tyne is one of the few ports in the UK that operates five main business sectors in-house.

And it has long understood the services it can offer customers stretch far beyond simply loading and unloading ships and, indeed, that its customers can be found at either end – or at any stage in between – of the supply chain.

The Port of Tyne has developed its supply chain solution and has been marketing it under one umbrella, Port of Tyne Logistics Services.

This year, the Port of Tyne has also set out to re-emphasise its expertise in supply chain management.

Earlier this year, Ian Gibson and John Tye, members of the Port of Tyne executive team and the directors of Tyne Logistics Company and Port of Tyne Distribution respectively, together with their teams, sat down together to work out a strategy aimed at ensuring the warehouses were working to full capacity.

Mr Gibson said: “We realised it made sense to market our logistics services through the umbrella of Port of Tyne Logistics Services rather than potentially confuse everyone by talking about the three separate divisions – Tyne Logistics Company, Port of Tyne Warehousing and Port of Tyne Distribution. This allows us to market our services simply and effectively to a much wider audience.”

Recent warehousing has been designed to accommodate a VNA (very narrow aisle) racking system to maximise storage capacity with upwards of 53,000 pallet spaces available in Tyne Dock.

Debra Hart, deputy general manager of Port of Tyne Warehousing, said: “Adaptability, flexibility, attention to detail and looking after the customer and their product are the key ingredients to our success, no matter how large or how small the storage need is.

“We want to maximise the use of our warehousing capacity. We have brought together a team of 12 people from the three business divisions, so that we have expertise from across the operations, as well as individual focus.” Five of the team are involved in direct sales, and the other seven have been trained for a telemarketing campaign whose main purpose is to gather information and raise the profile of Port of Tyne Logistics Services.

Since June 1, the team has made contact with more than 400 local companies and seen a 32% increase in its customer base.

By the end of this year, the Port of Tyne will have invested more than £100m during a decade of development and expansion, to provide new quays, cranes, cargo handling areas, rail facilities, warehousing, offices, haulage and IT.

The port’s main container customer, Feederlink, now makes five calls a week, operating vessels of 500 teu capacity – and the size of vessel used continues to increase.

There are two sailings a week from Rotterdam into the Tyne, and three a week linking the Tyne with Felixstowe and Grangemouth and, on occasion, Immingham. Transport links are also important and the Port of Tyne has established excellent working relationships with a number of key players, including Network Rail, the train operators and customers.

Matthew Hunt, commercial manager for the Port of Tyne, said: “With over two million tonnes of coal expected to be handled by the port in 2007, it is critical that we work in partnership with the rail operators to provide a high-quality service to deliver coal to the power generators.”

The port has welcomed GB Railfreight to the Tyne Dock estate, which is now the base for GB’s North-East operations and service to Drax Power. Close ties have also been established with other rail operators, namely Freightliner and STVA (in partnership with EWS), to deliver efficient services for the delivery of coal and cars respectively.