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PD Ports' 拢350 million Northern Gateway Terminal at Teesport will eventually see up to one and a half million cargo containers a year pass through the region, but the company says economic conditions mean work to build the quay itself won't get underway until 2010.

The project will involve dredging a channel 14.5m deep a mile out to sea, to allow 300m long deep sea container vessels to dock at a new quayside, opening the North East up to new markets in the far east.

The quay will be built on the site of a former Shell oil refinery on the South bank of the Tees, which has been lying vacant for around 20 years.

PD Ports was given planning permission to build the terminal in February 2008, just as the UK and world economies went into decline.

Container traffic at Teesport remained steady throughout 2008, but is expected to decline in 2009, as the downturn affects imports. Car imports through the port's ferry terminal fell by 25% in 2008 and are expected to fall again in 2009.

This, coupled with a lack of easy credit, has meant the company has had to revise its timetable for starting work on the new terminal and put back the commencement of works by a number of months, though the length of the building process (around ten years) means the projected completion date for the final phase remains 2020.