PD Ports Attracts Northern Europe's Largest Feeder Operator To Teesport

Online, June 10, 2010 (Newswire.com) - PD Ports has today announced a new container feeder service into Teesport by Unifeeder, one of Europe's largest feeder operations. This new service, which will sail into Teesport three times weekly, will open up the German market via Hamburg and also serve Rotterdam.

Frans Calje, PD Ports' MD unitised, said: "I am delighted to announce that we are Unifeeder's port of choice on the North East coast and will shortly be welcoming the first Unifeeder vessel into Teesport.

"This new call into Teesport greatly enhances the network of services which we can offer to the North East region's importers and exporters.

"Our overall strategy at the port is to expand its port wide capacity and going forward we have considerable growth opportunities, backed by long term investment, which will position Teesport as a major player in the container market."

Unifeeder's Jesper Kristensen, Managing Director, said: "We are very pleased and excited to include Teesport in our already extensive feeder network. We hope our many customers will benefit from our decision to include the UK East Coast in our future service calls."

PD Ports' recent growth in container volumes at its Teesport container terminals is also attributed to the highly successful portcentric logistics strategy adopted by the port in recent years. The success of portcentric logistics at Teesport has attracted leading retailers ASDA and Tesco, as well as Taylors of Harrogate.

Commenting on Teesport's volumes so far this year, Mr Calje continues: "In the first quarter of 2010, we have seen some 68% year-on-year growth in volumes at our two container terminals compared to the first quarter of 2009 from 35,000 to 58,700 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit). We are expecting to see a 40% growth over the whole year to December 2010 - watch this space."

Teesport's total unitised business, which includes ro-ro services, now handles over 425,000 TEU per annum.

N.B. Unifeeder's UK operations are managed by Johnson Stevens Agencies Ltd.

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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 $90 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 1140 members of staff, and generates an annual turnover of over £120 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:
Port Operations- is split into two business streams - bulks and unitised and includes:
Teesport: one of the top 3 UK ports, with flows of containers, bulk traffics and finished cars, handling over 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 and distribution services at UK locations throughout the North East, Humberside & East Anglia, including at Felixstowe. Please visit www.pdlogistics.com
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. Please visit www.thenortherngateway.co.uk

Portcentric Logistics: a new 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 Wal*Mart opened a 360,000 sq ft import centre at Teesport and has saved more than 2 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 opens in 2009
Conservancy - this includes:
Management of river traffic for the ports of Tees and Hartlepool, ensuring safe navigation and maintaining the required channel depth.

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
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