Infrastructure & Logistics

What sets us apart from other locations are our excellent port facilities. Tees Valley has ten miles of operational river along the Tees, the deepest berths on the east coast of England, 5.4km of quayside, five roro berths and over 1,400,000sq2 of warehousing space. We are home to England’s largest exporting port and, with lock-free access to the North Sea, Tees Valley is ideal for companies who need access to global markets. The port facilities are well-connected via road and rail, providing easy access to the rest of the UK. A new heavy lift 1km quay is currently under construction at Teesworks, which will serve the offshore sector.

Tees Valley is a major hub for the movement of rail freight, with more rail-linked sites than any other comparable area in the north of England. The Tees is the only port in the north of England with existing intermodal rail services operating directly from quayside facilities. And, with a mainline train station at Darlington, currently undergoing a £100million-plus redevelopment, it is easy to move goods around in Tees Valley.

Tees Valley’s roads are uncongested compared to the rest of the UK. Our urban centres are connected by a dual-carriageway and the A1(M), A19 and A66 provide strategic access to the north, south, east and west and our central location means it’s easy to reach the whole of the UK.

Teesside International Airport connects Tees Valley to more than 160 global destinations with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. There are three daily connections to the world-renowned, award-winning Schiphol hub as well as multiple daily flights to Aberdeen with connectivity to the Highlands & Islands and Scandinavia with Eastern Airways. A ten-year plan for the airport is growing new routes for leisure and business, and an under-development business park is expected to create up to 4,400 jobs when fully operational, made up of 1.9million sq ft of logistics, distribution, and industrial buildings.

Businesses in search of cargo handling services need look no further than Teesside Airport’s fully accredited facility. Experienced in both import and export, the hangar provides cutting-edge security screening technology, as well as handling, freight-forwarding, customs clearage and storage. The facility, which holds Regulated Agent status and has become the UK’s newest Border Control Post can handle secure cargo, flowers, fruit and vegetables and can be used for specialised charter flights for both air and road freight.

It is the UK’s most centrally located cargo hub, covering almost 95% of England, Wales and Scotland in six hours.

Digital connectivity is just as vital to businesses and, due to large-scale investment in the area, nearly 99% of Tees Valley is covered by superfast broadband.

A crucial part of Tees Valley’s infrastructure, Teesside University supports nearly 3,000 jobs and contributes £125million to the economy. Over £270million has been invested in the university, with a further £300million planned over the next ten years.

Teesside University and Tees Valley Combined Authority share an ambition to drive economic growth by supporting local businesses. The Teesside University Partnership, signed in January 2018, formalises the relationship between the two organisations who have worked together for years to deliver joint projects and initiatives that help residents and businesses. It is a unique agreement that will enable the creation of the high level skills that local businesses need to thrive, by attracting and retaining more graduates. It will also help increase the scale-up potential for local businesses and increase innovation capacity, giving businesses here a competitive edge over other regions.

Tees Valley is home to UK’s largest private wire electricity distribution network in the UK and as such, competitively priced, low-carbon power can be provided, enabling manufacturers to realise significant savings on both capex and opex compared to other UK locations.

Tees Valley’s effluent water treatment plant at Bran Sands is the largest combined industrial and municipal effluent plant in the UK. Strategically located in the industrial heartland of Tees Valley, the facility allows businesses to treat industrial effluents in a dedicated network of pipelines.

The region is also home to the UK’s largest artificial reservoir, Kielder Water. It contains 200billion litres of water and allows local businesses that operate in heavy industrial sectors uninterrupted access to water supply. Water is available in either demin, portable or raw forms.

Natural gas is available to businesses in Tees Valley through our gas distribution network. It is competitively priced compared to the rest of the UK due to access to short haul gas via the North Sea and the utilisation of the region’s excellent infrastructure. CATS currently transports gas from over 30 producing fields in the Central North Sea and in 2017 delivered over 5 billion cubic metres of gas (approximately 14% of UK gas production and 7% of demand).

Industrial gas is supplied by BOC to customers at Wilton and those operating in the wider Tees Valley chemical cluster. Tees Valley is home to the UK’s largest Hydrogen plant. The area is also home to significant underground cavities for industrial gas and product storage. With over 550tph generated by Sembcorp at Wilton International alone, steam is also readily available and can be distributed at high, intermediate and low pressures through a comprehensive network of pipelines.

The bulk facilities in Tees Valley are world-class. Major operators Inter Terminals and Navigator Terminals offer clients extensive storage and handling solutions in Tees Valley. Both companies operate considerable tank storage facilities which are fully integrated with the adjacent petrochemical complexes at Billingham and Wilton. Customers are connected by a series of pipelines which transfer cargo from quayside storage to customers located on both sides of the river.