PD Ports Announces New Position - Key Project Director to Lead NGCT Project Development Team

London, 9 May 2008 – PD Ports has announced that Frans Calje has been appointed to the new position of ‘Key Projects Director’.

Reporting to CEO David Robinson, Calje (a Dutch national) will assume responsibility for leading all the Northern Gateway Container Terminal (NGCT) project teams. He will be charged with overseeing the over £300m investment project in all future planning, construction and commercial aspects of this major new development at Teesport in the North East of England. The appointment is as a member of the PD Ports Executive Committee.

Calje brings considerable experience in the development of container terminals throughout Europe and in the USA, gained during a very progressive career within APM Terminals. As Senior Project Manager – Business Development for APM Terminals International, he led the $100 million JV project between APMT and global shipping line CMA/CGM to deliver a 30 year concession for the port of Mobile, Alabama. In his latest role as General Manager – Project Implementation and Business Development, amongst other notable achievements Frans has been instrumental in the successful APMT bid for the first concession at the new Rotterdam Maasvlakte 2 development, a project involving the investment of some Euro 420 million.

In the immediate term, Frans will be based in PD Ports’ head office at Queen’s Square, Middlesbrough. Alison Moss, recently appointed by PD Ports as “Legal Manager- Projects” will report to him on all legal aspects of the NGCT project. Moss joined PD Ports in February from northern based legal firm Dickinson Dees where she was employed as an associate in the company and commercial department. As the momentum behind NGCT continues to gather pace in coming weeks and months, other important new roles will be added to the PD Ports team that Calje will lead, and alternative accommodation arrangements will be needed to house the team other than in Queen’s Square.

According to David Robinson, CEO for PD Ports, “During his first month Frans will be taking the opportunity to visit as many PD Ports site locations as possible, in order to obtain a comprehensive introduction to the wider business of the Group, and the people, customers and suppliers involved in our business. We are delighted to have attracted in Frans someone with a great deal of international experience to lead this vital project. His experience and supplier contacts will be of critical importance to the projects early delivery.”

“Today’s announcement of Frans’s appointment follows our recent news that PD Ports and Tesco will be bringing 800 new jobs to the UK, through the development of a state-of-the-art import centre in the North East of England. With this Tesco move, alongside the existing highly successful Asda Walmart import centre which opened at Teesport in spring 2006, we can see real momentum gathering behind our dream to create a major container handling portcentric logistics hub serving the North of England and Scotland based here in Teesport” concluded Robinson.

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• PD Ports Limited was formed following the successful takeover of PD Ports plc by Babcock and Brown Infrastructure (ASX: BBI) in February 2006.
• 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 1350 members of staff, and generates an annual turnover of over £130 million from 30 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– this includes:
 Teesport: one of the top 3 UK ports, with flows of containers, bulk traffics and finished cars, handling 50 million tonnes of throughput p.a.
 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, opening in 2011. 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 350,000 sq ft import centre at Teesport and has saved more than 2 million road miles by adopting the portcentric concept. Tesco is also building a 1.2 sq ft import centre at Teesport to open in 2009.
 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 ship’s agency, chartering and stevedoring services.
 Logistics: PD Logistics offers warehousing and distribution services at 15 UK locations throughout the North East, Humberside & East Anglia, including at Felixstowe. Please visit www.pdlogistics.com
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 forms part of the potential for development.
 The redevelopment of part (133 hectares) of Hartlepool docks known as Victoria Harbour.

See also www.pdports.co.uk

This release was published on openPR.