Location, Location, Location

The Port of Prince Rupert is looking for a few good places to get stuffed.

Joining with the Provincial Ministry of Economic Development, the Port is looking at potential locations for container stuffing facilities which will service the Fairview Container Port.

While other locations around the province are being examined, there is also a push locally to see some of these stuffing facilities located in Prince Rupert, providing quick and easy access to the Container Port and of course adding to the secondary industry aspect of the Container port development on the North Coast.

Andrew Hamilton, who is the business development manager for the Prince Rupert Port Authority says that the idea of locating stuffing terminals in the city makes sense. With many containers sitting idle in Prince Rupert before shipment back to Asia, some material could be forwarded to Prince Rupert in break bulk form and then loaded onto containers for shipment.

According to Hamilton, there is a very strong demand to stuff containers in Rupert for the port. The ability to stuff containers locally would make for a situation that would provide for more economic opportunity and job creation at the port.

The Daily News had some background on the possibilities in Tuesday’s paper.

Port looks at best places to back-fill containers
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Pages one and two

The Port of Prince Rupert is working with the provincial Ministry of Economic Development to determine the best location to stuff B.C. goods into containers.

During a chamber of commerce lunch meeting last week, Andrew Hamilton, business development manager for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, said the organization has had a lot of inquiries from Prince Rupert and the region from people wanting to export products.
However, there needs to be central locations for stuffing so that it can happen quickly without having containers drift off the main trade routes, he said.

"There are a lot of key assumptions people have to understand (when it comes to exporting using containers,)" said Hamilton.

"The first is, the shipping lines own the containers, this is key because they are the landlord and they dictate where these containers are going.

"Let's say there is product up in Fort St. John - some wood products - but there is a lot of apprehension by the shipping companies to let their containers drift off the supply chain because what they want to do is get a higher utilization out of their hardware."

In addition, he noted the shipping lines make more money on the inbound than the outbound journey.

"We have to be very very quick about getting product in to containers, again not letting it drift off into the hinterland."

Currently, CN Rail has developed container-stuffing facilities in Chicago and Memphis to handle cotton and other goods. Future plans include the development of a facility to stuff DDGs (derivative grain products sold as animal feed.)

It also has stuffing facilities in Edmonton, Grand Prairie and Prince George to handle forestry and agricultural products. However, there is a lot of interest in stuffing in Prince Rupert and developing other facilities throughout the province.

"The Ministry of Economic Development and port have been trying to work on a loading study that would determine in a logical basis the best place to load each product," he said.

"One thing we've seen from shippers is a very strong demand to stuff at the port. There's a lot of opportunity for more economic opportunity and job creation at the port," said Hamilton.

It makes sense to stuff in Prince Rupert because equipment dwells here for a couple of days before it gets on vessels, he said. Goods could be moved here in break-bulk format and then stuffed for shipping.

However, people need to realize not everything can go into a container.

"Shipping lines have contracts about what goes into containers say that are moving electronics into North America. The importer, like Best Buy, Sony or whomever, will have some say to stipulate what goes into that container on the back-haul. It reconfirms not everything can go into a container," he said.