Shipping

[Tynesider]

Guess its a sign of where things are going when you see 6 ships including a dredger in the Tyne, 11 ships in Blyth and even 3 in Sunderland.

High berthing costs in the Tyne must put a lot of shipping companies off wanting to come here or invest so I wonder what the PTA are doing about it

[Hornbeam]

I get the impression that PTA are wanting to make the Tyne/ Newcastle a leisure Port rather than a Cargo Port except for the essentials, dirty British Coasters or even Foreign ones are not being made welcome by the high charges. Cruise Ships are a different matter, Northumberland is a superb County (not as good as Gods own mind you) with many attractions especially to the Americans with your actual Roman Wall (as the Americans would say) which they do not have unless they have built a Faux one, they do have the Mason/ Dixon Line and the wonderful Route66 as you are aware stretching across their Country which are historic in their own way
The problem for the Tyne is/was never a M.O.D. Class A Logistics Port on the East Coast unlike the Forth, Tees, Humber or the Thames, Shipbuilding/Shiprepair was its past speciality.

[Whickham]

Not forgetting a little bit of coal.

[Tynesider]

It gets worse even shore side 'where can you park now for free ' either on the north side or the south side, now you have to pay for parking anywhere even on the old Tyne commissioners quayside as Royal quays marina now charge for parking anywhere there.

I kept my boat there for over 20 years but no way would I return there now as its a rip off for anything that floats or now parks

Bio mass fuel will not last forever so what has the Tyne got apart from Nissan when that's no longer required, anyone with any sense would have expanded the container berth, at Felixstow just down the coast they cannot unload container ships fast enough.

[Whickham]

I think it is easy to criticise the POT but it should be remembered that the local economic area is quite small and is served by Blyth, Tyne, Sunderland, Seaham, Harlepool and Tees, all busy ports vying for the same trade and all within 40 miles of each other. Outside the immediate conurbations there are another 50 miles of land in every direction, largely populated by sheep, that have only very basic requirements. Also transport links to the rest of the UK are very poor as is being highlighted at the moment by all the talk of wished for rail and road upgrades. Its a dog eat dog world out there and price cuts aren't necessarily the answer.

[creemaster]

To be fair Blyth might have ships but it is not that busy
PEAK BELFAST and SEA GULL are regluars on a shuttle service to Scotland with green energy project cargoes and cement respectively
We get alot of ships, call them what you want as they can do anything from supply to cable laying. Some are in a matter of hours, some for demob/mobilisation
It can get boring seeing the same ships all the time!
Regards
Graham

[Hornbeam]

Very true Tynesider, you would have thought that there would have been some announcement in regards to building some more Container Berths in the North East bearing in mind as you say just by looking at Felixstowe and how busy it is, especially on Teesside with all that Wharfage available now that the Steelworks have gone.
The M.O.D. Classification was a Cold War thing and based on shipping equipment to Europe in the event of the East wanting to move into the West as Putin is threatening to do now and before someone hit the Big Red Button although the so called " Cold War" period has never ceased for the RN hence the need for "Operation Hornbeam" based on the same reasoning that Putin is doing now with his Warships in the Black Sea and interfering with the Sea Trade Routing to Ukraine.
Them watching us, Us watching them, Them watching us, and so on and so on.

[northeast]

Pointless to compare with Felixstowe (or Tilbury or Southampton) as far as major container ports are concerned, the vessels are huge and a UK call is just an add-on to their major business via Antwerp, Rotterdam etc. so they need southern ports that are easy to access close to the Channel. The idea of 'hinterlands' for local ports in the UK is somewhat false, with road/rail distribution and equalisation of tariffs by the big operators. So the Humber/Forth range of ports will always be for European trade or as feeders to deep-sea over there. Liverpool has spent a huge amount on a riverside container berth and cranes but to my knowledge has not attracted anything significantly more than it had before, they just don't need to go through Gladstone lock ... same reason, off route for the big boys.

[Hornbeam]

Your reply is very disappointing NE, I was hoping that the Deepwater Berths now lying vacant could accommodate at least some of the ugly Box Boats and one of them would shed a Container or two onto Redcar Beach where I could negotiate a deal with one of the locals wreckers to acquire a brand new BMW motorbike out of one the washed up Containers for a bargain price

[northeast]

Sorry Ron2, I checked the TAXIARCHIS just 70 years back and not a sign of a decent BMW or even a Bubble Car (our old RI teacher used to drive a Messerschmitt, to our great amusement, so soon after the war.)