PD Ports announces no further Teesport job losses

At the beginning of December 2009, Corus announced its intentions to mothball some of its Teesside Cast Products (TCP) operations with effect from the end of January 2010.  Since that date PD Ports has subsequently met with senior Corus representatives and this remains the understanding of the situation.

The restructuring activity that PD Ports has engaged in over the last six months, and the growth in other business areas such as the port’s container handling operations at Teesport means that there will be no further job losses at the port as a result of the partial mothballing of Corus TCP. 

PD Ports’ proactive approach to seek new opportunities and long term investment in its unitised business at Teesport has continued to deliver further growth and success.  The last six months has seen a 51% growth in container volumes compared to the same period in 2008, from 75,000 to 114,000 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit).
As a direct result of this growth PD Ports will redeploy some Teesport employees into the unitised side of the business, and others into positions that have deliberately been left unfilled pending the Corus TCP outcome. 

This considerable growth has been the result of the port’s success in attracting more deep sea traffic through the portcentric logistics concept.  Existing customers, which include ASDA and Tesco, have been the driving force behind this sustainable growth having already committed long term investments at the port to serve their Northern UK markets.

Further volumes are being driven by Containerships, following the appointment of Teesport as the container shipping line’s hub for its Mediterranean/Baltic services in 2009. BG Freight and major global container shipping line, Evergreen also established new services at the port last year.

David Robinson, PD Ports’ group chief executive, said:  “This is very positive news not just for PD Ports and its employees but for our stakeholders and wider community.  In spite of extremely difficult trading conditions, we have delivered levels of sustainable growth in our container terminals, backed by long term investment, to offset job losses that may have resulted from the mothballing of Corus TCP.
“The redeployment of some of our Teesport employees will be underpinned by an extensive retraining programme, which will commence later this month.
“We can now continue to move the business forward, seeking further growth and investment in our unitised and bulks operations to secure jobs at Teesport and throughout our business in the future.

“In the last three years we have seen some 1,200 new jobs created in the Tees Valley as a result of portcentric operations.  PD Ports believes this to be a major opportunity for further job creation in this region and we are working hard to make this happen.”

Source: Transport Weekly