UK Ports Expand Container Handling

PD Ports has completed the first phase of a £2 million ($3.3 million) expansionof its existing container terminal handing facilities at Teesport. The investment, on the UK Northeast Coast, involved the relocation of the port’s existing Vauxhall cars import compound to make 10 acres of additional land available, to accommodate an increase in container volumes handled at Teesport, according to PD Ports.

The Port expects to grow its container volumes in the period before the Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT) commences construction. PD Ports' annual container handling capacity at Teesport has, as a result of this recent investment, increased from 206,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) to 236,000 TEUs (125,000 to 143,000 containers).

Roughly £600,000 ($990,000) of this latest investment has gone to purchase new equipment including, two empty container handlers, four terminal tractors and five trailers to handle the growing number of containers stored within the dock area.

“This investment signifies the first of a number of development phases at Teesport required to accommodate the growing container volume throughput, said David Robinson, PD Ports’ group CEO. He added, “The rise in volumes is a result of general growth of our existing customer activity, together with increasing port-centric logistics traffic from the likes of existing client Asda Wal-Mart and recently Tesco, whose 1.2 million sq ft import center is due to open at Teesport in August. Further expectation of growth in our container volume comes through transhipment volumes, with Containerships recently announcing Teesport as its strategic freight hub for Northern Europe, bringing an increase of 20,000 TEUs through the Port each year.”