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PD Ports (PDP) in talks to bring major retailer to Teesport
10 March, 2010
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| The Teesside firm is also hoping to clinch a series of smaller deals that would see companies ship their goods into Teesport for distribution across Northern England |
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 The move is part of a wider plan to position Teesport as a port-centric logistics hub that stores cargo closer to its final destination and is further indication of returning confidence in the global container market, which had slumped badly in the recession. PDP has seen container volumes grow by more than 50%, buoyed by growing business from Tesco and Asda.
The Teesside firm, which has been canvassing trade among some of the world’s biggest container shipping services, said it was “very confident” of landing “a major player in the retail industry" within 12 months.
Jerry Hopkinson, MD, bulks, ports and logistics, PDP, said: “There is lots of interest in what we are doing. We are looking at retailers who are bringing fast-moving consumer goods into the UK and are probably bringing the bulk of these volumes through the south.”
He said Teesport could save costs for companies and reduce congestion at busy southern ports and roads. An estimated 54% of freight shipped into Felixstowe ends up at Teesport on the back of a truck.
“We are loading lorries onto what are already congested roads.
“This has a cost and environmental impact. That cost translates to the retailer and ultimately to the consumer.”
Asda and Tesco have both benefited from bases at Teesport. Since January 2009, the former has saved 1,265,459 road miles; while Tesco said it had cut 12,000 lorry journeys a year from its schedules as a result of its £50m import centre.
The supermarket giant appears to favour the port-centric logistics model, recently announcing plans for a new distribution centre next to the River Mersey at Widnes to replace a facility in Greater Manchester.
Mr Hopkinson said the Widnes site would not be in direct competition with Teesport because it would handle different goods.
He also said the North-east’s close proximity to the continent gave it a competitive edge over the North-west, although upgrades to rail infrastructure were necessary to boost PDP’s capacity to handle increasing volumes of hi-cube containers.
Last month Network Rail announced a £530m masterplan that included doubling the number of freight rail routes from the West Coast Main Line to Manchester’s Trafford Park
However PDP says funds should also be channeled into infrastructure improvements along the east side of the country - including vital upgrades that would allow containers to be sent via rail from Teesport to the East Coast Main Line.
The Network Rail plans focus heavily on removing existing bottlenecks at Manchester and the introduction of new inter-regional and trans-Pennine services linking it to Leeds, but PDP said the plans were merely “tinkering around the edges”.
Martyn Pellew, group development director at PDP, said: “It won’t necessarily achieve a lot on the West Coast Main Line, which can already handle larger containers.
“But increased freight capacity in Eastern England would position Teesport more favourably as an alternative to congested ports in the south.”
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