PD Ports welcomes four new RTG cranes to Teesport

Aug. 19, 2011 - PRLog -- The four new RTG (rubber-tyred gantry) cranes delivered to Teesport today are a key component of the current £16.7million expansion of the container terminals at Teesport and represent the biggest single equipment investment in the port since the container terminal opened in 2003.

The Konecranes RTGs, manufactured in Finland and Poland for a total investment of around £5 million, are the first of their type to be supplied by Konecranes in the UK and will allow PD Ports to significantly improve handling capacity on the Teesport Container Terminal as volumes continue to grow.

“By switching from the current handling system using reachstackers to these RTGs we can store many more boxes on the same area, due to their ability to create higher, wider container stacks,” says Mark Pearson, PD Ports Project Director. “They also improve the number of containers handled per hour.” The 16-wheel RTGs have a lifting capacity of 50 tonnes and can stack 1-over-5 containers high and 6 plus truck lane wide.

Teesport’s container terminals saw volumes increase by 45% in 2010 and capacity is currently being expanded from 235,000 to 450,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit), the standard measurement for sea containers. The company’s overall strategy is to expand port wide capacity to at least 650,000 TEU so further improving employment security for the current 500+ Teesport employees, and potentially creating new opportunities for additional employment, especially important at a time when the local and national economies remain under serious pressure to create jobs.

The RTGs, which were purchased after a rigorous selection process, are fitted with the latest Konecranes fuel saving system and have been designed to take future environmental requirements into account, including switching from diesel to electric power.

The cranes are also equipped with the latest GPS-assisted technology for container yards. This includes the autosteering feature, which keeps the crane on a pre-programmed straight driving path, thus improving safety and increasing productivity.

The RTG container positioning system is connected to the port’s terminal operating system, ensuring correct, real-time container positioning and maintaining accuracy in inventory.

Mr Pearson says the operators will go through a full training programme and he expects the RTGs to be in full operation by the end of September.

Ends

About PD Ports:

•   PD Ports Limited is owned by Canadian based Brookfield. Brookfield is a global asset manager focused on property, renewable power and infrastructure assets, with over $100 billion of assets under management.  PD Ports was bought by Brookfield in November 2009.
•   PD Ports is a high performing specialist ports business offering a wide variety of supply chain services to improve customers’ international product and material movements into and out of – as well as within – the UK.

•   PD Ports employs over 1200 members of staff, and generates an annual turnover of over £115 million from many UK locations.

•   PD Ports operates throughout the UK from bases at many key ports and logistics centres.      

•   The 3 business interests of PD Ports are:
o   Port Operations– is split into two business streams – bulks and unitised and includes:
   Teesport: one of the top 4 UK ports, with flows of containers, bulk traffics and finished cars, handling almost 40 million tonnes of throughput p.a.
   Humber & Small Ports: owners and/or operators of ports on the Humber estuary, Rivers Trent and Ouse, and at Medina Wharf, Isle of Wight. Service offerings include ships’ agency, chartering and stevedoring services.
   Logistics: PD Logistics offers warehousing, recycling and distribution services at UK locations throughout the North East, Humberside & East Anglia, including at Felixstowe.  
Development plans for port operations include:
•   The Northern Gateway Container Terminal: a major new deep sea container terminal planned at Teesport on the South side of the River Tees.  The £300+ million development will have a capacity of 1.5 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) and is anticipated to deliver over 5,500 jobs to the Tees Valley, when fully operational. Circa 1,300 of the 5,500 new jobs have already been created through portcentric logistics operations in the past four years.
•   Portcentric Logistics: a concept promoted by PD Ports for locating the storage and distribution of imported goods close to the point of arrival at a UK port. This concept avoids the slow handling and return of empty containers as well as eradicating unnecessary UK road mileage, which occurs when delivering to a traditional inland import centre, such as in the Midlands.  
In 2006 ASDA WalMart opened a 360,000 sq ft import centre at Teesport and has saved more than 8 million road miles by adopting the portcentric concept.  Adjacent to the ASDA facility, Tesco operates a purpose built 1.2 million sq ft import centre at Teesport, which opened in 2009. Tea and coffee specialists Taylors of Harrogate opened a purpose built warehouse facility at Teesport Commerce Park on the periphery of Teesport in 2010 to handle its UK imports.
o   Conservancy – this includes:
   Management of river traffic for the ports of Tees and Hartlepool, ensuring safe navigation and maintaining the required channel depth.  
o   Property– this includes:
   Revenue and income from property and facilities owned by PD Ports and used by third party clients on long term leases.
   Land that is not utilised for operational purposes and offers potential for development.
   Port land at Hartlepool docks, which is highly attractive to the growing renewable energy sector, including offshore, windfarms, and biomass plants.  PD Ports’ long term strategy is to further develop Hartlepool docks as a centre of excellence for the offshore support sector

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