UK supermarket chain Asda has signed a deal with PD Teesport (part of PD Ports) to develop a new £20m (US$35.3m) import centre at Teesport, near Middlesbrough, that will create 300 jobs.
The deep-sea container facility will help ease congestion in southern container ports like Felixstowe and Southampton and provide Asda with an international logistics operation in the Northeast for the first time.
Asda estimates it will save two million road miles a year by shipping 70% of its distribution direct to Teesport rather than delivering it to southern ports then transporting it by road to its northern based distribution centres.