Containerships, a shortsea carrier, has chosen North East based Teesport, owned by PD Ports, as its strategic freight hub for Northern Europe. The shipping line, which acquired Mediterranean short-sea specialist Contaz in March, has chosen to use Teesport, the UK’s third largest port by volume, to link its new Mediterranean services with its traditional Baltic routes.
Containerships, a long-term customer of PD Ports, has chosen for the first time to direct the Contaz traffic through Teesport. Initially there will be two ships on this route, operating a 12/13 day frequency, meaning that Containerships will be making five calls a week in total at Teesport. Teesport and Containerships plan to increase the frequency along the new route to reach a targeted increase of 20,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent unit). This will bring the total volume fed by Containerships through Teesport to almost 80,000 TEU pa.
David Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of PD Ports, explains the route, "We will offer unique shortsea door to door connections between Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Libya, Turkey, and Tunisia in the South linking via the UK, with the Baltic States, Finland, Poland, Russia and Scandinavia in the North. The two services also offer possibilities for transport to and from Belarus, Ukraine and Central Asia."
Charles Patton, Managing Director of Containerships, says, “We now have 450 staff in 15 offices and 15 vessels that will allow us to offer fast and frequent onward connections with transit times from 12 up to 21 days depending on ports of origin and destination using our fleet of 40' and 45' pallet-wide containers”.
Major retailer Tesco is opening its new 1.2m sq ft warehouse within the Port’s estate in August and Asda, which has had an import centre located at Teesport since 2006, is also predicting an increase in volumes.