Container Port debut spurs interest and excitement across Northern BC

As the Cosco Antwerp sailed out of the harbour this week, the Fairview Container Port finally became the long planned and anticipated transportation link to the world.

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With a frenzy of activity on the docks with the arrival of the first shipment of goods from Asia, the port quickly loaded those containers onto rail cars and sent them off on their cross continent journey.

Needless to say, the story dominated the week in Prince Rupert and Friday’s paper had two main stories to cover the background on the Port of Prince Rupert’s big week.

From the front page of the Friday Daily News a sense of the excitement that the new direction for the Port and the impact it will have on the region.

CONTAINER TRAIN LEAVES AMID A WAVE OF PRIDE, EXCITEMENT
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, November 02, 2007
Pages one and three

The first containers to arrive in Prince Rupert by way of the Fairview Container Terminal left the city yesterday afternoon, much to the pleasure of all the partners involved.

Representatives from the Port of Prince Rupert, CN Rail, Maher Terminals and COSCO Shipping were all ecstatic to see the double-stacked, 9,000-foot train departing on the first leg of its journey that will end in Memphis, Tennessee.

"When that first container came off the ship, I couldn't help but reflect on the many years of planning, designing and constructing all coming to fruition," said Franz van Riemsdyk, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Maher Terminals.

"It was a pretty special moment. COSCO reps mentioned various times that they feel like they're part of history, and I think they're to be commended for taking the first step in recognizing the gateway that Prince Rupert is."

Maher Terminals President Joseph Curto was also onhand to watch the first shipment of containers leave the city by rail, and was at a loss for words to describe the way he felt during recent days as he watched the project become complete.

"We've been working on this for like three years, and to see the ship come around that corner made me proud and extremely excited," he said. "I think as soon as others see that this option is real and that it works, that the ship can come and the cargo can move, we'll have a lot of other carriers also taking advantage of this option."

Curto said he was reminded of the original visionary Charles Hays, who foresaw the possibilities that Prince Rupert had to offer world trade.

"It goes way back to that vision of a land-sea bridge, and we're seeing half of it here from the Far East to this West Coast, but there's no reason to think the land bridge at some point couldn't continue even further east," he said.

"But we'll have to see how this whole process develops because we're at the very early stages of exploring this gateway."

"With great opportunities come great new things," said Curto.

With the arrival of the first COSCO ship, and departure of the cargo on the first CN train, the question everybody wants to know now is, what shipping companies are going to sign on next?

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"There's a lot of conversations ongoing for sure, and at the right time, we'll be more than happy to announce that," said van Riemsdyk.

"For the moment, they're discussions/negotiations that we have to respect the confidentiality of."

'Extremely exciting day' makes dream a reality
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, November 02, 2007
Pages one and three

Despite some windy weather, the first container ship to dock in Prince Rupert has managed to come and go, marking the beginning of operations at the new terminal.

On Tuesday evening, the 5,400 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) COSCO container vessel ANTWERP sailed into Prince Rupert Harbour and berthed at the new Fairview Container Terminal.

"The significance of the event goes well beyond opening a new chapter for Prince Rupert or even British Columbia," said Dale MacLean, chair of the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA).

"When it touched the shores of North America at the Fairview Container Terminal, the ANTWERP activated the first new transpacific trade corridor to be created on this continent in 100 years. The wave from this ripple effect will travel from Prince Rupert to the mid west and back again."

The containers, filled with a variety of merchandise for large eastern retailers, originated in the Chinese ports of Hong Kong, Yantian, Qingdao, Dalian and Xiamen as well as Yokohama, Japan. This is part of the CKYH Alliance's Pacific Northwest Butterfly South Loop service, of which COSCO is one of four shipping lines, that will see a container ship from a string of nine 5,400 TEU vessels make a weekly call to Prince Rupert.

Maher Terminal crane operators began offloading the first of about 1,100 TEUs from the ANTWERP shortly after midnight. The containers were loaded onto Maher bombcarts, and driven through one of four Canada Border Service Agency's radiation portals before going to the intermodal yard less than 200 metres away for loading onto the rail cars.

In the meantime, Maher's 17 reach stackers were offloading about 600 containers, many filled with paper products, that arrived on the CN train from the east and double stacking them on the terminal to be loaded onto the ANTWERP.

The ANTWERP was scheduled to depart from the Fairview Terminal yesterday.

After calls in Vancouver and Seattle, the ANTWERP will sail back to Hong Kong to complete the butterfly service loop.

The collaboration between the Canadian and United States border services to review manifests before containers are loaded in Asia and to collectively identify containers to be opened and examined in Prince Rupert means CN trains will only be slowed down to pass the rail cars through security scanners at the border before entering the U.S.

"COSCO's vision is clear, it includes strong growth in trade between China and North America and given the facilities developed in Prince Rupert," said Dave Bedwell, executive vice president, COSCO Container Lines. "COSCO will be able to build on the advantages and become a long-term supporter of the gateway in Prince Rupert."

"We were in the enviable position of building, not only this state-of-the-art container terminal, but a high-efficiency express trade corridor virtually from the ground up," said Don Krusel, president and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority. "The extremely exciting day for us has now arrived to put our new business model to the test and begin to realize the full economic benefits for Prince Rupert and along the northern transportation corridor that we have envisioned."

The event was also recognized in the legislature were Prince George Omineca MLA John Rustad recognized the milestone.

"The arrival of containers from China signals to the world that B.C. now has a new major high-speed, congestion-free container port with enormous potential for growth. This milestone has been a dream of northern B.C., and indeed for the entire province, ever since the railhead for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was created early in the 20th century," said Rustad.

"In my community of Prince George, people are also celebrating. With the recent opening of the new transload inland container port, the first trainloads of containers carrying goods bound for Asia and beyond are already on their way to Prince Rupert."