Take care in placing a development

Mar 26 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

Magnet for large-scale investment

The region’s maritime links will get a massive boost through the £300m development of a deep sea container terminal on the river Tees, says Paul Nicholson.

THE new development by PD Ports will be called the Northern Gateway Container Terminal. For those who have seen massive container operations at ports such as Felixstowe and wonder why the North East does not have something similar, this gateway investment both into and from our region will have significant implications for our infrastructure as a whole and help redress the north-south distribution balance.

For ports, certainly of the scale envisaged by PD Ports, it will mean a re-appraisal of how goods move in and out of the region, which have hitherto moved through the Port of Tyne and further afield via Hull or Felixstowe itself.

PD Ports calculates that the Northern Gateway project will be more cost-effective than any of the new southern ports, it will reduce road mileage, improve vehicle productivity and save over £60m in UK logistics alone.

The North East has a clear advantage in that it faces the European market. Already Teesport handles 50million tonnes of cargo each year. The deep sea container terminal will see this grow not just to Europe but on a global scale.

The A19 and its links to the A1(M) and A66 give Tees Valley a distinct advantage from a transport perspective. Some 50% of goods destined for the north are routed through ports as far away as Southampton so using our regional ports makes a great deal of business sense.

With road links accessing markets north, south and west and rail links also accessing these markets, the infrastructure is in place to make the distribution spread from the new Teesport facility work well.

PD Ports say that a container taken to Manchester from Teesport would save 121 lorry miles compared with delivery from Felixstowe and 229 lorry miles would be saved if the same comparison was made for a delivery to Glasgow.

The short-sea distances show that Scandinavian, Baltic and European ports are all accessible as is the global market.

This £300m investment will act as a magnet for large-scale inward investment with reverberations across all areas of infrastructure. Smaller ports may well benefit and the North East as a whole could well be viewed afresh as a location for large-scale manufacture and distribution as a result.

Paul Nicholson is director of agency at Atisreal.