PD Ports is a

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 ...

, UK headquartered

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 H ...

, shipping and logistics company; owner of

Teesport Teesport is a large sea port located in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, Northern England. Owned by PD Ports, it is located approximately inland from the North Sea and east of Middl ...

, and ports at Hartlepool,

Howden Howden () is a market and minster town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, which lies across the ...

and

Keadby __NOTOC__ Keadby is a small village in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated just off the A18, west of Scunthorpe, and on the west bank of the River Trent. Keadby is in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. The appropriate civil ...

; with additional operations at the

Port of Felixstowe The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's busiest containerization, container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd List of busiest container ports, busiest contain ...

Port of Immingham The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest ...

, and

Port of Hull The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally cond ...

. Formerly known as Powell Duffryn, it traces its origins to a coal mining company founded by Thomas Powell in the 19th century in the

South Wales coalfield The South Wales Coalfield ( cy, Maes glo De Cymru) extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, espe ...

. After Thomas Powell's death in 1863 the company operated as the Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company having been amalgamated into the business of Sir George Elliot. During the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the company expanded its mining activities, also acquiring shipping firm

Stephenson Clarke Stephenson Clarke Shipping Limited, established in 1730 is Great Britain's oldest shipping company. The company specializes in short sea bulk cargo such as aggregates, alumina, grain, coal, fertilizers and steel. History Reverend Ralph Clarke, ...

in 1928. After number of colliery acquisitions and a merger with the Welsh Associated Collieries in 1935 it became Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries In 1947 the main coal mining division of the business was nationalised into the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

. The remainder of the company diversified, mainly into shipping and engineering, and acquired the ports of Tees and Hartlepool in the 1990s. Restructuring in the late 1990s/early 2000s resulted in the sale of engineering businesses and a focus on port operations. The company was acquired in 2000 by Nikko Principal Investments Japan Ltd., a unit of

Nikko Cordial Nikko Cordial Corporation was the holding company for Nikko Cordial Securities, Japan's third largest brokerage until 2008, when Nikko Cordial Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Citigroup; upon completion of share exchange, it merg ...

Corp. of Japan. In 2003 the company re-branded as PD Ports. In 2005 the company was acquired by infrastructure division of Babcock & Brown, and then sold to

Brookfield Asset Management Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a Canadian multinational company that is one of the world's largest alternative investment management companies, with over US$725 billion of assets under management in 2022. It focuses on direct contro ...

in 2009.

History

Foundation – Thomas Powell (1779?–1863)

The business started in Newport, Wales in the late 18th century as by Thomas Powell who had inherited the family business at the age of 14 on his father's death – in 1810 Powell acquired land in Llanhilleth and began coal mining. Powell expanded his coal business, opening several collieries in the Newport area – by 1830 Powell's business had become successful – aided by the increasing demand for coal in Steam engines; good transport connections via the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

and canal system, and later by the railways; and by the high quality of the Welsh coal. Removal of a coal export tax in the 1830s allowed Powell to more widely export the coal, and compete for the market in northern England. The company's first deep mine was sunk at

Cwmbach Cwmbach is a village and Community (Wales), community (and electoral ward) near Aberdare, in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Cwmbach means 'Little Valley' in Welsh language, Welsh (Cwm = valley, Bach = little). Cwmbach has a popul ...

, Aberdare in 1840, opening further mines in both Aberdare and the

Rhymney Valley The Rhymney Valley () is one of the South Wales valleys, with the Rhymney River forming the border between the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire. Between 1974 and 1996 a Rhymney Valley local government district also existed (one ...

in the following decades. Together with Thomas Prothero and John Latch he formed the first South Wales coal syndicate in 1833, the "Newport Coal Association". From the 1830s Powell began assembling his own shipping fleet, and also invested £20,000 in the

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in st ...

. By the 1840s Powell's mining interests were the amongst the world's largest coal producers. ''Powell's Duffryn'' was one of Thomas Powell's companies (Dyffrn meaning literally "Valley"). Powell's mine conditions were poor, leading to a number of explosions in the 1850s. In 1858 Powell cut wages by 15% resulting in strikes which were met with strike breaking methods;

Strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

labour was introduced from England. By 1862 Powell controlled 16 mines, which exported more than 700,000 tons of coal. Shortly before his death he arranged the merger of his business interests with those of Sir George Elliott, forming the ''Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Ltd'' in 1863 with a capital of £500,000. Powell died 24 March 1863.

Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Ltd (1863–1935)

In 1867 the company acquired the

Aberaman Aberaman is a village near Aberdare in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, south Wales. It was heavily dependent on the coal industry and the population, as a result, grew rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Most of the industry has now ...

Estate from iron master

Crawshay Bailey Crawshay Bailey (1789 – 9 January 1872) was an English industrialist who became one of the great iron-masters of Wales. Early life Bailey was born in 1789 in Great Wenham, Suffolk, the son of John Bailey, of Wakefield and his wife Susannah ...

, the land of which held much good quality 'steam coal'. By the 1900s the company had begun generating electricity and utilising it in mining. In 1916, E.M Hann was made a director of the company. After the

First World War 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 ...

he drove the development of the company, acquiring all the adjoining collieries (Aberaman, Lletysiencyn, Abernant, Gadlys and Blaengwawr), succeeding in sinking every one of the company's collieries in the Aberdare Valley to the lowest seam. The company started a joint venture in the shipping industry with Stephenson and Clarke in 1920, later acquiring their partners outright by 1928. The company expanded by acquisition of land and construction of pits, including the Rhymney Iron Company, the Windsor Colliery, collieries from Lewis Morthyr, the Great Western Colliery Company and the Nantgawr Colliery; all acquired in the 1920s.

Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries (1935–47)

In 1935, Powell Duffryn merged with the Welsh Associated Collieries, who owned 34 collieries, and formed the joint venture company ''Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries'', which had an output of 20 million tons p.a. The merged company included the Cambrian Wagon Works, adding an engineering arm to the business. During the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

the companies' engineering subsidiary expanded in order to fulfill military orders. The 12 colliery Cory Brothers & Co. Ltd was acquired in 1942, forming ''Powell Duffryn Ltd.''.

Nationalisation, Powell Duffryn (1947–2003)

In 1946 the

Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act of 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6 c. 59) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which nationalised, or brought into state control, the coal industry in the United Kingdom. It established the National Coal B ...

led to the formation of the

, which took over the companies coal business – after a decade of negotiation Powell Duffryn was paid £16 million for the assets. The firm diversified, expanding its former secondary interests: engineering, fuel distribution and shipping. Additional interests included timber, quarries, and brickmaking. Engineering interests included ''Powell Duffryn Engineering'' in Llantrisant and the ''Powell Duffryn Wagon Company''. Hamworthy Engineering was acquired in 1962. By the 1980s the company was showing good profitability; the

Hanson Trust 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 ...

made an unsuccessful takeover attempt in 1984. From the late 1980s onwards the company disposed of its railway, shipping and bulk liquid assets:

was sold; the loss making railway engineering division was closed in 1993/4; much of the fuel distribution and storage assets were sold between 1996 and 1998. In 1998 the ship engineering arm was expanded by the purchase of "Kvaerner Ships Equipment" (KSE) for £34 million from the Kvaerner shipping group. In 1992 the Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority (THPA) (see

and Port of Hartlepool) was acquired by Powell Duffryn Plc, 3i, and Humberside Holdings Limited in 1992; Powell Duffryn became sole owner in 1995. The company was acquired in 2000 by Nikko Principal Investments Japan Ltd., a unit of

Corp. of Japan, with shareholders accepting 570p per share, a valuation of £507 million. In the late 1990s/early 2000s the company was restructured; selling multiple business interests; after acquisition in 2000 the company's engineering interests were Hamworthy KSE (marine engineering), Hamworthy Belliss and Morcom (compressors), Hamworthy Combustion, and Geesink (waste disposal equipment), representing 2500 of a total workforce of 4,200; the engineering division had higher turnover, but lower profit than the port business. The Hamworthy Bellis & Morcom compressor division (see Belliss & Morcom) was sold to Gardner Denver Inc. of the United States for £26 million.

PD Ports (2003–)

The company's maritime and port businesses was rebranded in 2003 as PD Ports, Logistics and Shipping (PDPLS). In 2004 the company was sold to stockbrokers Collins Stewart for £450 million (£170 equity, £280 million debt), followed by an immediate stock market flotation. A bid by Babcock and Brown Infrastructure (BBI) at 150p per share, with total value £337 million was recommended in December 2005. In November 2009,

acquired 100% of PD Ports. from BBI for a nominal $1, taking on $113 million of debt, as part of BBI port asset sales to reduce the company's debt burdens.

Operations

As of 2013 PD Ports owns and operates the Ports of Tees and Hartlepool under the name

. The company also operates the Hull Container Terminal at the

, and provides

stevedoring A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number ...

and

warehousing A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, tow ...

services at the

; logistics and warehousing at the

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A ...

, and

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 i ...

; and operates a wharf on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

. The company also owns the short sea ports in

(Groveport),

( Howdendyke,

River Ouse, Yorkshire The River Ouse ( ) is a river in North Yorkshire, England. Hydrologically, the river is a continuation of the River Ure, and the combined length of the River Ure and River Ouse makes it, at , the longest rivers of the United Kingdom, sixth-lon ...

), and

(

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

References

Sources

External links

PD Ports
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pd Ports Companies based in Middlesbrough Port operating companies Companies formerly listed on the Alternative Investment Market Private companies limited by guarantee of the United Kingdom Companies established in 1840 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange