Teesport was temporarily transformed into a scene resembling a science fiction film earlier this month when more than 180 futuristic-looking mine arches, each weighing in excess of 27 tonnes, were loaded onto a Rickmers-Linie vessel bound for China.

The highly unusual cargo, manufactured by Joy Mining Machinery of Worcester, UK, was handled by the award-winning Teesport operator and logistics firm, PD Ports, and loaded onto the 30,000dwt, multipurpose heavy lift vessel Rickmers Jakarta on its “Round-the-World Pearl String Service”.

The mining equipment, destined for longwall and room and pillar mine operations, is designed to extract high volumes of underground coal and other bedded materials. The machines are used in pairs to create one large arch, which then cut away at the coalface whilst supporting the weight of the roof of the mine tunnel.

David Varey, General Manager, Conservancy and Port Development at PD Teesport, said: “We were very happy to work with Joy Mining and Rickmers-Linie in providing the specialist handling equipment and quick vessel turnaround required for this project. Rickmers-Linie is looking to build on this successful operation with further calls to Teesport in the near future.”

Picture Caption: Just one of over 180 mine arches bound for China is made ready at Teesport for loading on board Rickmers Jakarta.

Please contact amanda@imageline.co.uk for a high res version of this image

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

Please visit www.pdports.co.uk
PD Ports contact: Rebecca English,
Interim PR & Communications Manager (Maternity Cover)
01642 877026 or 07423 433 603
news@pdports.co.uk
Initial press enquiries to:
Image Line Communications
Contact: Yvonne Mulder or Amanda Shoffman
yvonne@imageline.co.uk/amanda@imageline.co.uk
020 7689 9009
www.imageline.co.uk

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Rickmers-Linie

Hamburg-based Rickmers-Linie is a leading specialist in the global transportation of project cargoes and heavy lifts by sea. The company belongs to Rickmers Group, which offers diversified activities in the fields of liner shipping, shipowning and shipmanagement, investments and real estate as well as maritime related services.

Further information on Rickmers-Linie is available at www.rickmers-linie.com
Information about the manifold activities of Rickmers Group is available at www.rickmers