Container Port: One Man's Opinion

Thursday, November 30, 2006 03:45 AM

He is one of over 1100 contributors to this site but very often he cracks the coconut wide open with his diggings and he did just that recently in pasting on a story from the Wall Street Journal on the impact of a Container Port in Prince Rupert.

It was a good piece of writing that cut to the chase about what this container port is all about.

It should put some minds at ease and hopefully put an end to the speculation that has swirled around this project.

A container sorting yard for PG, a little tiny bit of one maybe, but do you think that all those ships that arrive in Prince Rupert will have their containers stop here so that half of the load can be sent over to Wally’s World or Home Depot? If you believe that then you have been dipping into some of that apple cider that came about as a result of the bet on the Grey Cup.

The people who will operate the system are saying that the bulk of the cargo will move to Chicago, where the containers can then be divided and shipped to the population centers such as New York and Boston, and where they really do have a population base.

When those containers hit the southern US, they will be loaded with goods from there to be shipped back to China. If you have any disagreement with that, then please explain why you would load those containers with that product in this city?

At present a container costs about $3500 dollars from China to Chicago, we will need to make the price at least as good or better and we will have to get it there faster than at present through Los Angeles who by the way will be able to boast that you won’t have your product subjected to frost if you use the southern route.

So what can we load here? Well pulp and paper , which we are already doing and shipping through the Port of Vancouver. So we will switch from using the truck method to the container method in this region.

Now I want you to tax your mind and tell me how many people it will take to do that job to fill the limited number of containers left to go to China that have not been filled with goods from the US.

Raw logs? They are to hard to get in and out of the container and time costs money.

So what are we left with? A couple of small facilities, one by CN, the other as proposed by a local group who will try and move freight more economically from PG to China than the present method.

Where do we fit in the equation? Well we can hope for some more CN Crew some more maintenance , but a barn burner for the people of PG?

Hardly.

I’m Meisner and that is one man's opinion.

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Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: rufus on November 30 2006 8:34 AM

Exactly, Ben, I just go back to that goofy Intervistas report that uses Huntsville, Alabama in the same breath as Prince George.
Boeing, Toyota, Marshall Flight Center, Army base ----geez, has anyone besides me googled Huntsville? Has anyone looked at a map of North America. Hansen drawing his silly line on the globe and seeing it go right over PG.

Posted by: postman on November 30 2006 9:31 AM

With the econiomic think tanks we have in Colin Kinsley, Colin Hansen et al, why worry. You don't need facts. Just inhale that air emanating from the mills and refinery and you too will see the light.

Posted by: kimbo on November 30 2006 9:58 AM

What do we do with the dreamers who envision such great things for PG ? Our Mayor travels the world and one chinese person arrives to coach skating and we use CN center to welcome the guy. The Mayor and council are insulted because someone has suggested that we clean up our air quality. He calls it cheap politics.

Whats wrong with that picture ?

Cheers

Posted by: Chadermando on December 1 2006 2:56 AM

On the plus side if the supply chain goes past our doorstep then we are sure to have future opportunities as a result of the infrastructure economics. That�s why I think it will take ten plus years to truly realize our potential in relation to this port and not something next year when it becomes operational. Unfortunately the forest sector won't hold out that long, and this coincides with our market being pumped for a lot of locals that will be holding the bag long, while the cut and run crowd makes off with the equity windfall.

The biggest thing I see on PGs horizon is the University Heights neighbourhood plan? Maybe the airport container port?

Posted by: Palopu on December 1 2006 9:45 PM

These container ships will arrive in Prince Rupert approx (1) every 9 days. Each ship can hold 12,500 TEU's(20ft Equivelent Units) This means 6250 40ft containers. Double stack the 40ft containers on a rail car and you have 3125 rail cars. Assume 150 Rail cars per train and you have 20 Trains per shipload every 9 days. These trains would have to be moved out of Prince Rupert within two days or you would be looking at lost days, and therefore defeat the purpose of coming through Prince Rupert.(20 Trains would be aprox 30 Miles) (48 Kilometres)

Once the Port started to function, in order to fill out the Ship for its return trip you would need 12,500 TEU's going back either loaded or empty, which of course means an equal amount of trains going from the East to the West. Assume 2 days to unload the Containers and 2 days to reload the ship. The ship should be gone from the Port within 4 days. This means a 5 day gap when you would not have any outbound trains, but you probably would have inbound trains. Some trains will probably have to be stored East of Prince Rupert until room can be made for them in the Prince Rupert Yard.

The logistics of moving this traffic are enormous as the normal turnaround time for a Container to go from Prince Rupert loaded to Chicago, and then return to Prince Rupert loaded would be in the area of 30 to 40 days. (Containers must be unloaded, delivered to customers, picked up empty and then repositioned for loading, then loaded on trains and returned to Prince Rupert.

You would have 50,000 TEU's moving East and West before the 1st Container arrived back in Prince Rupert. (This would be the equivilent of 4 Shiploads)

This system can work without too much difficulty as long as there is no problems such as derailments, slides, etc; Once the track is impassable then things start to back up immediately. If it was a serious slide, such as they had between Terrace and Prince Rupert a few years ago, the only alternative would be for the Ships to go to Vancouver until the slide and congestion was cleared. With the CN and CP both having rail lines out of Vancouver if one experiences trouble they can run of the other Railways line. There is no such opportunity between Prince George and Prince Rupert. Once the line is out, your finished.

Just some (I hope) interesting trivia.