Teesport
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Teesport is a large
sea port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
located in the
unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
of
Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a borough with unitary authority status in North Yorkshire, England. Its main settlements are Redcar, South Bank, Eston, Brotton, Guisborough, the Greater Eston part of Middlesbrough, Loftus, Saltburn and Skelton. Th ...
, in the ceremonial county of
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
,
Northern England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
. Owned by
PD Ports PD Ports is a Middlesbrough, UK headquartered port, shipping and logistics company; owner of Teesport, and ports at Hartlepool, Howden and Keadby; with additional operations at the Port of Felixstowe, Port of Immingham, and Port of Hull. Former ...
, it is located approximately inland from the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
and east of
Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...
on the
River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...
. Teesport is currently the third largest port in the United Kingdom, and amongst the ten biggest in Western Europe, handling over 56 million tonnes of domestic and international cargo per year.


Description

The port covers an area of of land alongside the southern bank of the River Tees. Presently handling over 6,000 ships and 56 million tonnes of cargo per annum, Teesport is mostly associated with the handling of steel, petrochemical, manufacturing, engineering and retail. Teesport is the logistical hub for the commodity chemical and steel companies that are members of the
Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster The North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is an economic cluster created following the industrial cluster ideas and strategy of Michael Porter. This Process Industry Cluster has been created by the chemistry using industries ...
(NEPIC).


Facilities

Teesport's facilities include: *Tees Dock Terminal: handling
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude oi ...
, which accounts for 73% of the port's volume. ** Redcar Ore Terminal: deep-sea bulk terminal facility that handles more than eight million tons of imports a year, mainly iron ore **Cleveland Potash bulk terminal: handles more than a million tons of potash and salt exports, mainly from Boulby Mine **Steel Export Terminal: equipped with eight
gantry crane A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object or workspace. They can range from enormous "full" gantry cranes, capable of lifting some of the heaviest loads in the world, to small shop cranes, us ...
s, it handles over a million tons of steel slab export a year. Can also handle wood imports, including tropical hardwood, fiberboard, plus softwood and pulp from
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
*Teesport Container Terminals: two computerised
Container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
quays, capable of handling 500,000  TEU per annum **TCT1 at , which can hold 1,872 TEU at quayside **TCT2 at , specifically developed deep-sea cargo quay which presently handles customers including
CMA CGM CMA CGM S.A. is a French container transportation and shipping company. It is the world’s 3rd largest container shipping company, using 257 shipping routes between 420 ports in 160 countries. Its headquarters are in Marseille, France The name ...
. TCT2 has its own specifically built railhead, which was developed in partnership with
DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS)), is a British rail freight company headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established in early 1995 as ''North & South Railways'', successful ...
*
Roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
:
P&O Ferries P&O Ferries is a British shipping company that operates ferry, ferries from United Kingdom to Ireland, and to Continental Europe (France, Belgium and the Netherlands). The company was created in 2002 through mergers and acquisitions within P&O ...
operates eight sailings to
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
and six to
Zeebrugge Zeebrugge (, from: ''Brugge aan zee'' meaning "Bruges at Sea", french: Zeebruges) is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeeb ...
per week. An extension of allows the import of 100,000 cars by
Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
, while
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
sub-leases *Dawson's Wharf: handles dry cargo from a river-facing quay, handling 400 thousand tonnes of bulk minerals and non-hazardous chemicals *Cochrane's Wharf: a site operated by Tarmac Aggregates for the import of dredged marine materials


Landside

Landside clients include
Hanson plc Hanson UK, formerly Hanson Trust plc, is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. The company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly listed on the London S ...
who operate a major
cement works A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...
, and a landfill site which uses non-hazardous waste to backfill the site of the former Tees Dock facility.
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
operate a high-bay non-food storage and distribution facility at Teesport. The currently under-construction Teesport Renewable Energy Plant is scheduled to come into operation in 2020.


Northern Gateway Terminal

In February 2008, PD Ports were given planning permission to redevelop the former
Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...
refinery A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value. Types of refineries Different types of refineries ...
in a £350 million scheme that would create a new container facility, entitled the Northern Gateway Terminal, which would raise TEU capacity of the entire port to 1.5 million TEU. However, due to the 2008 economic downturn, PD Ports put back the start of development until 2010 at the earliest, with the programme now scheduled to complete in 2020.


Transport connections

PD Ports leases a number of former-
British Rail Class 08 The British Rail Class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive built by British Railways (BR). As the standard BR general-purpose diesel shunter, the class became a familiar sight at major stations and freight yards. Since their ...
shunting locomotives from
RMS Locotec RMS Looctec is a railway company based in Wolsingham, England. It has specialised in industrial railway management, infrastructure maintenance, and rolling stock leasing; one major customer was its former sister company and rail freight operator ...
to move rail traffic around the port, and to/from the two main associated marshalling yards. The port is directly rail connected to the
East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...
and the
Durham Coast Line The Durham Coast Line is an approximately railway line running between Newcastle and in North East England. Heavy rail passenger services, predominantly operated Northern Trains, and some freight services operate over the whole length of the li ...
, and close to the A66 trans-pennine route, and other major trunk roads.


History

The first developed facility on the current Teesport location was a
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
depot during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. This allowed the allocated six
British E-class submarine The British E-class submarines started out as improved versions of the British D-class submarine. The E class served with the Royal Navy throughout World War I as the backbone of the submarine fleet. The last surviving E class submarines wer ...
s to operate further into the North Sea during their defence, attack and mine laying operations against the
Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...
. At this time, commercial port facilities were still handled at Middlesbrough Docks, located further upstream. In the 1920s, Eston Urban District Council decided to turn the 13 former dormitories of the former Royal Navy facility into 38 small houses, within a community called Teesport. By the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, of the original 130 residents that came when the community was developed, only 3 remained. This was because in 1934, the joint owners of the land on which the community was built – riverside and shoreline Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson; landside
Dorman Long Dorman Long & Co was a UK steel producer, later diversifying into bridge building. It was once listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Arthur Dorman and Albert de Lande Long when they acquired ''West Marsh ...
– had written to the council to seek assurances that they would not let any more houses within the community, so allowing the land owners to take back possession and be allowed to develop their businesses on the land. After the war, due to over-crowding around the original Port Darlington and Middlesbrough Docks facility, both companies developed industrial facilities on the land, and sub-leased some land to other commercial operations. Between 1965 and 1968, three oil refineries were developed close to Teesport, thanks to the
Phillips Petroleum Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...
's development of the
Ekofisk oil field Ekofisk is an oil field in block 2/4 of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea about southwest of Stavanger. Discovered in 1969 by Phillips Petroleum Company, it remains one of the most important oil fields in the North Sea. This was the first ...
in the North Sea. The first two were jointly developed and operated by Phillips and ICI on the north shore of the River Tees at the North Tees Works, just south of Greatham Creek. After processing this facility fed
cyclohexane Cyclohexane is a cycloalkane with the molecular formula . Cyclohexane is non-polar. Cyclohexane is a colorless, flammable liquid with a distinctive detergent-like odor, reminiscent of cleaning products (in which it is sometimes used). Cyclohexan ...
,
benzene Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms, ...
,
toluene Toluene (), also known as toluol (), is a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon. It is a colorless, water-insoluble liquid with the smell associated with paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, consisting of a methyl group (CH3) at ...
and
xylene In organic chemistry, xylene or xylol (; IUPAC name: dimethylbenzene) are any of three organic compounds with the formula . They are derived from the substitution of two hydrogen atoms with methyl groups in a benzene ring; which hydrogens are sub ...
to ICI's
chemical plant A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transform ...
s at
Billingham Billingham is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. The settlement had previously formed its o ...
and Wilton. The third refinery was developed in 1968 by
Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yor ...
on the south shore within Teesport. This facility was served by what became known as Tees Dock, with the whole docks facility designed around
Panamax Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...
scale ships. In 1980, with the discovery of
North Sea gas North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and ...
, a pipeline was installed between Ekofisk and
Seal Sands Seal Sands () is a 294.37 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham, England, notified in 1966. Situated in the mouth of the River Tees next to Greatham Creek and Seaton-on-Tees Channel, the site is accessible ...
on the north shore. Although the Shell refinery was mothballed in 1989 and later closed, and the north shore facility of
Petroplus Petroplus Holdings AG was Europe's largest independent oil refiner by capacity. When the now defunct company was first formed in 1993, it was known as Petroplus International N.V., and was based in the Netherlands. In August 1998, it was list ...
closed in 2010, as a result of the pipeline petrochemicals traffic still today represents about 50% of the cargo through Teesport, around 26 million tonnes a year. In 1992 the
Port Authority In Canada and the United States, a port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body (or bodies) to operate ports and other t ...
of Tees and Hartlepool was privatised, with the original three buyers subsequently reduced to a single owner, Powell Duffryn Plc, in 1995. With traffic out-scaling the port's handling and ship-scale facilities, PD Ports then developed TCT2 in 2002 specifically as a deep-sea cargo quay on top of the site that used to be the original Tees Dock. In March 2021, Teesport became the UK's largest Freeport.


See also

*
Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster The North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is an economic cluster created following the industrial cluster ideas and strategy of Michael Porter. This Process Industry Cluster has been created by the chemistry using industries ...
(NEPIC) *
Teesside Steelworks The Teesside Steelworks was a large steelworks that formed a continuous stretch along the south bank of the River Tees from the towns of Middlesbrough to Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. At its height there were 91 blast furnaces within a 10 ...
* Tees and Hartlepool Harbour Police


References


External links


Official company website Port of Middlesbrough
{{authority control Ports and harbours of Yorkshire River Tees Places in the Tees Valley Buildings and structures in Redcar and Cleveland Transport in Redcar and Cleveland Teesside