PD Ports Appointed As Construction Logistics Hub For Teesside Offshore Windfarm

March 1, 2012 - PRLog -- PD Ports has been appointed as the main construction logistics hub at the Port of Hartlepool for the Teesside Offshore Windfarm Project.
Over the next seven months, the Port of Hartlepool will be the focal point for all materials and components to be installed in the new wind farm being developed by EDF Energy Renewables.
Over 100 people are involved in the offshore construction programme and will be operating out of the project supply base established at Hartlepool.
The turbines for the new wind farm will be supplied by Siemens. Van Oord UK, a Sustainable EPC and Marine Contractor, will supply and install the turbine foundations & sub-sea cables and will manage the installation operations for the turbines.
The extensive available land bank and deep water at the Port are fundamental components in the delivery of the project, providing dedicated assembly areas for the massive structures with direct access to the North Sea.  PD Ports will also supply stevedoring support services to assist the loading of components onto vessels which are then taken out to site, some 1.5km off the shore of Redcar on the north east coast.
Van Oord’s decision to operate out of Hartlepool is a boost for the port operator’s Chain Reaction Initiative which launched in 2010 with the aim of positioning the Port of Hartlepool and the wider region as a centre of excellence for the European wind energy market.
Paul Barker, PD Ports’ development director, bulks and ports, said: “We are delighted to be appointed as the main construction logistics hub for the Teesside Windfarm Project at Hartlepool. This project, which will deliver 27 wind turbines and produce enough green energy to power 40,000 north east households, is the first physical output of the Chain Reaction Initiative and an excellent result for the region.”
Tim Bland, EDF Energy Renewables’ project manager for Teesside Offshore Windfarm, said:  “This is an exciting but very demanding project and we are working closely with PD Ports to ensure that the work proceeds according to plan. An offshore wind farm requires much closer integration of design, construction and materials supply activities than an onshore wind farm because of the additional challenges of operating at sea and the vagaries of the weather.
“The supply base established at Hartlepool is therefore central to our construction programme.”
The first wind turbine is expected to be fitted by late summer 2012 with electricity being generated from the wind farm by early autumn.

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

# # #

Based in London, Image Line Communications is a full-scale PR, design and events firm. We specialise in the maritime, logistics and supply chain sectors and we have a wide client base ranging from multinational corporations to new businesses.