Port Of Prince Rupert Sees Decade High Numbers for Cargo

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 03:55 AM

Prince Rupert, B.C.- Although 2009 was a difficult year for most , the Port of Prince Rupert sailed safely through it, recording its highest volume throughput since 1997.

The port handled 12,173,672 tonnes of cargo in 2009, that’s an increase of 15 per cent over 2008 volumes.

The higher volumes in 2009 were not driven by one line of business, but were up for most Prince Rupert facilities including containers and bulk cargo.

The Fairview Container Terminal handled 265,259 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) in 2009, a 45.9 % increase over 2008, despite the global economic downturn that has resulted in declining container traffic through other North American West Coast ports.

Prince Rupert Port Authority President & CEO Don Krusel says the performance over the past year, bodes well for the "We are confident that the Port of Prince Rupert and our partners, including CN, Maher Terminals, longshore workers and the shipping lines, have demonstrated the competitive advantages of the Port of Prince Rupert as a gateway for transpacific container trade. Our continued growth reflects the increasing confidence and satisfaction of our customers with the quality of service they are receiving through the Prince Rupert Gateway."

On the bulk cargo side of the business, Prince Rupert Grain (PRG) volumes jumped 35.1 per cent to 5,080,834 tonnes, the terminal's highest throughput since 1994. Wheat shipments, the core of PRG's business, were up 55.8 per cent to 4,638,010 tonnes, offsetting decreases in volumes for barley, canola and grain pellets.

Ridley Terminals Inc. experienced a surge in coal volumes in the second half 2009, following a weak first half, to push total traffic to 4,159,679 tonnes. This was down 14.2% for the year compared to 2008. While overall metallurgical and thermal coal volumes declined 30.9 per cent due to weak global demand, this was significantly offset by strong increases in coking coal (110.5 per cent), petroleum coke (46.4 per cent) and wood pellets (108.7 per cent).

The Port of Prince Rupert also experienced increased cargo volumes for logs (79.6 per cent) and wax (30.8 per cent).

In the cruise business, passenger traffic was down 46.8 per cent as a result of the loss of a weekly cruise vessel port of call in 2009. Prince Rupert welcomed 55,097 guests from 31 cruise vessel visits last year, compared to 103,630 on 63 ships in 2008, the port's best year since becoming an Alaska cruise port of call in 2004. Despite this decline in cruise ship traffic, Prince Rupert continues to improve its cruise tourism capabilities to support future growth of the sector.

Looking ahead in 2010, Krusel says the port remains focused on growing container volumes and furthering the progress of the Phase 2 expansion of the Fairview Container Terminal. A second priority is the development of the Ridley Industrial Park to accommodate new terminal and logistic services development to support the expansion of the Port of Prince Rupert.

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Posted on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 03:55 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on January 27 2010 6:37 AM

They should make Tarrace a free trade zone for foreign traded goods manufactured in that city... so they can link the logistics of a North American rail network with an oversees container port. By Free Trade I mean eleminate corporate taxes, duties, tarrifs, and income tax matching requirments for qualified businesses in the export market only in that zone. The place would explode with economic activity and the region would benefit from the spin off effects of business that would never otherwise locate there... at the same time raise tarrifs on foreign produced goods that do not meet Canadian environmental, labor, and quality standards that would be imported into Canada... thereby signalling our market is open to fair competition that sees our industry competitive with anyone else in the world. It works for places like Singapore

Posted by: Eagleone on January 27 2010 6:40 AM

The raw logs for one would have no more reason to leave the west coast on container ships unprocessed would be the first side effect of such a policy IMO.

Posted by: Palopu on January 27 2010 9:28 AM

Why Terrace. If you were going to have a Free Trade Zone, why not the Greater Vancouver Area, it has all the Rail, Truck. Airline, connections, plus the various Ports, and access to hundreds of thousands of people for labour, etc;. The cost of land might be higher, but in the end it would be much more efficient than starting fresh in a small town like Terrace.

Vancouver imports 10/20 times as many containers as Prince Rupert, and is presently in the process of upgrading Delta Port so handle larger Container ships.

Im not aware of any Free Trade Zones in Canada, however if one was to be built, it would make sense to have it closer to the highly populated areas, because that is where the market is. Shipping costs from Terrace to the **real world** would be very expensive, as opposed to say from Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, area.

Posted by: diplomat on January 27 2010 4:26 PM

Finally something positive about our northern part of the province, the part we care most about!

Congratulations to Prince Rupert!

Now keep building on what you have accomplished already!

Posted by: Harbinger on January 27 2010 5:41 PM

Speaking of boats, where are our airplanes? When are they gonna get here?

Posted by: Eagleone on January 28 2010 9:03 AM

A free trade zone is for exports and Tarrace-PR are the closest place in Canada to those export markets. A free trade zone would not work for the North American market because of NAFTA chapter 11, so the idea of Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal is a not go from the get go. Also the idea of a free trade zone is not to disrupt the local domestic economy, but rather maximize potential in the off shore economy. If the developments happened in Tarrace, than people would move there or the developments would not happen. If the economics are there, then so to will be the industry and the people that follow the jobs.

Posted by: Eagleone on January 28 2010 9:03 AM