The Port of Hartlepool’s fortunes have improved recently, and cargoes of pipes and other equipment for the offshore industry are now being handled. In April 2012 Tata Steel won a large contract to supply more than 48,000 metric tonnes of steel pipe for a new crude oil export pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. The steel to provide 105 miles of 18-inch diameter pipe to be laid at depths up to 7,000ft came from Tata’s mill in Hartlepool. The contract has brought several bulk carriers to Hartlepool to load the pipes, one of which was the Panamanian-flag 2005-built Gea, which arrived at the port from Dordrecht on 7 October and sailed on 15 October.
