In what would be a major boost to the local economy, the Port of Prince Rupert is exploring possible opportunities in warehousing, container stuffing and other logistical requirements for shippers through the Port of Prince Rupert.
The ability to create a "container gateway" as Shaun Stevenson described it to a recent Chamber of Commerce function, is considered a pivotal part of the plan to make Prince Rupert’s port a major player on the world shipping scene.
That gateway would create a level of secondary employment in the Prince Rupert area that doesn’t currently exist. By developing a stuffing and re-stuffing capacity for the city, the output through the Port would increase, of particular interest to the local fishing industry is the expression of interest in a cold storage facility.
That has been a long discussed facility going back to the days that BC Packers ran the Oceanside Cannery operation on George Hills Way. Since the Canadian Fish Company consolidated most of the local fishing industry a number of years ago, the topic has repeatedly been brought up, including in any number of civic election campaigns over the last ten or fifteen years.
Little progress seems to have taken place on that file over the years, but perhaps now that the Port is openly discussing and exploring the option the prospects may be on the front burner. That would be of great benefit to the fishing industry, allowing local fish processors to tap into the world market without having to send their products through Vancouver.
The spin off to that industry could see an increase in hours for local shore workers who have suffered through the various crisis situations that the fishery has found itself in over the last few years.
The ability to create a "container gateway" as Shaun Stevenson described it to a recent Chamber of Commerce function, is considered a pivotal part of the plan to make Prince Rupert’s port a major player on the world shipping scene.
That gateway would create a level of secondary employment in the Prince Rupert area that doesn’t currently exist. By developing a stuffing and re-stuffing capacity for the city, the output through the Port would increase, of particular interest to the local fishing industry is the expression of interest in a cold storage facility.
That has been a long discussed facility going back to the days that BC Packers ran the Oceanside Cannery operation on George Hills Way. Since the Canadian Fish Company consolidated most of the local fishing industry a number of years ago, the topic has repeatedly been brought up, including in any number of civic election campaigns over the last ten or fifteen years.
Little progress seems to have taken place on that file over the years, but perhaps now that the Port is openly discussing and exploring the option the prospects may be on the front burner. That would be of great benefit to the fishing industry, allowing local fish processors to tap into the world market without having to send their products through Vancouver.
The spin off to that industry could see an increase in hours for local shore workers who have suffered through the various crisis situations that the fishery has found itself in over the last few years.
Cold Storage facilities would also allow those smaller companies to be more competitive with Canadian Fish and McMillan's, as they strive to create a niche for their products harvested near Prince Rupert and then hopefully processed and shipped in an expanded fashion locally.
It would be just one side benefit of an expansion of secondary facilities for the Port and provide a larger footprint for the local seafood industry to showcase its products.
In the week prior to Stevenson’s discussions this week at a Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce function, the Port announced that Kitimat's Rio Tinto-Alcan had taken advantage of our gateway to the world by sending ingots to Prince Rupert for stuffing into containers and export shipment through Prince Rupert.
It’s an indication of what the Port hopes will be the beginning of many other projects of similar style, which will bring more attention to the advantages available through the port of Prince Rupert.
During his luncheon speech Stevenson revealed some interesting details of the container ports progress so far since its opening in October.
16 vessels have called at the Port of Prince Rupert since operations began in the fall of 2007.
Maher Terminals has averaged off-loading at 22 containers per hour, and have handled a little more than 30,000 TEUs (average-sized containers.) This works out to about 20 per cent of their total capacity per month.
There have been strong volumes of export containers through the port, with an average of 36 per cent loaded containers outbound and hitting a high of over 50 per cent loaded one week.
There are of course challenges for the port as well, including one that is beyond their control that being the slowing down of the American economy. That is a situation which has made the task of attracting other container lines to call on the Fairview port a little bit harder as the world's shipping lines try to figure out where the transportation economy is heading .
With volumes down through west coast ports for the first time in twenty years, the job of attracting traffic through the Rupert facility is a daunting one. The key will be to provide a fast efficient and reliable turnaround service for the shipping lines and the additional secondary industries for the importers and exporters that are choosing to ship through Fairview.
In Friday’s Daily News the paper featured a front page story with some background on Stevenson’s thoughts and the possibilities that may be in the works for Prince Rupert.
It would be just one side benefit of an expansion of secondary facilities for the Port and provide a larger footprint for the local seafood industry to showcase its products.
In the week prior to Stevenson’s discussions this week at a Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce function, the Port announced that Kitimat's Rio Tinto-Alcan had taken advantage of our gateway to the world by sending ingots to Prince Rupert for stuffing into containers and export shipment through Prince Rupert.
It’s an indication of what the Port hopes will be the beginning of many other projects of similar style, which will bring more attention to the advantages available through the port of Prince Rupert.
During his luncheon speech Stevenson revealed some interesting details of the container ports progress so far since its opening in October.
16 vessels have called at the Port of Prince Rupert since operations began in the fall of 2007.
Maher Terminals has averaged off-loading at 22 containers per hour, and have handled a little more than 30,000 TEUs (average-sized containers.) This works out to about 20 per cent of their total capacity per month.
There have been strong volumes of export containers through the port, with an average of 36 per cent loaded containers outbound and hitting a high of over 50 per cent loaded one week.
There are of course challenges for the port as well, including one that is beyond their control that being the slowing down of the American economy. That is a situation which has made the task of attracting other container lines to call on the Fairview port a little bit harder as the world's shipping lines try to figure out where the transportation economy is heading .
With volumes down through west coast ports for the first time in twenty years, the job of attracting traffic through the Rupert facility is a daunting one. The key will be to provide a fast efficient and reliable turnaround service for the shipping lines and the additional secondary industries for the importers and exporters that are choosing to ship through Fairview.
In Friday’s Daily News the paper featured a front page story with some background on Stevenson’s thoughts and the possibilities that may be in the works for Prince Rupert.
PORT READY TO EXPAND INTO WAREHOUSING, COLD STORAGE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, February 22, 2008
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, February 22, 2008
Page one and three
The Port of Prince Rupert is turning its focus toward attracting and developing warehousing and restuffing opportunities in order to meet the needs of shippers.
Speaking at a Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon earlier this week, Shaun Stevenson, vice-president of business development and marketing for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, said that it has become apparent since the opening of the new Fairview Container Terminal in October 2007 that shippers want the flexibility that comes with having warehousing, restuffing, cold storage and logistics platforms available in Prince Rupert.
"What has become really apparent in the months since the opening is the complexity of the industry, some of the drivers to seeing traffic flow through Prince Rupert and the need to build upon that opportunity to create capacities both to maximize the economic opportunity to Prince Rupert but also to create a sustainable business model going forward as a container gateway," said Stevenson.
Since the Fairview Container Terminal opened, 16 vessels have called. Maher Terminals has averaged off-loading at 22 containers per hour, and have handled a little more than 30,000 TEUs (average-sized containers.) They are handling about 20 per cent of their total capacity per month.
"What we don't have is those next layers of service, the stuffing and reload, warehousing and cold storage that create that port load opportunity in Prince Rupert that can stimulate that export traffic and also accommodate other services associated with inbound traffic to deal with their supply chain management," said Stevenson.
Andrew Hamilton, manager of business development for the Prince Rupert Port Authority, explained that shippers want flexibility, they want to be able to reroute cargo in transit and treat their containers as moving warehouses.
Retailers face increasing pressures not to run out of stock and need to be able to respond to market changes at a moment's notice.
"We are not building a dock, we are building a supply chain. This summarizes our approach ... we should be looking at the whole system holistically if we want to meet the needs of customers," said Hamilton.
Another challenge for the port has been the slowdown of the U.S. economy, which in turn has made it difficult to attract an additional shipping line to call at Fairview.
While the fundamentals behind strong future import volumes remain, shipping lines are uncertain where they want to make future ports of call, said Stevenson.
"Obviously, this has made it very difficult to securing additional liner service to Prince Rupert when you have so much uncertainty in the industry," he said.
With only one line calling at Prince Rupert, this in turn limits the ports of call for shippers moving goods both inbound and outbound through Fairview. Currently, one service is calling at Fairview - the CKYH Alliance comprised of COSCO, K-Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin shipping lines.
"We really need to see more container lines coming in and more services being created if we are going to be successful in seeing some of the other benefits flow," said Stevenson.
However, there have been several bright points since the terminal opened. They've managed a relatively strong start, even though container volumes on the West Coast are dropping for the first time in 20 years and Maher Terminals is seeing strong levels of exports.
"One of the surprising things we've seen develop is incredibly strong volumes of export containers, average 36 per cent loaded containers outbound and hitting a high of over 50 per cent loaded one week," said Stevenson.
"There were a lot of critics out there about the port development that really believed there was going to be next to no export opportunity through Prince Rupert. I think that has been a real surprise for everyone involved, including the shipping lines who are really seeing a strong export pricing and a service that is heavily subscribed to the point where we have essentially maxed out the export allocation for Prince Rupert."
Alcan jumps aboard shipping from Fairview
February 13, 2008
February 13, 2008
The Northern View
The container port at Fairview Terminal has a new customer, and Rio Tinto-Alcan is certainly glad that the port is there.
Managing director of B.C. operations Paul Henning explained, “the sad fact is the volume of material being shipped up and down the West Coast has reduced fairly significantly.” In the past, he pointed out, shipments of metal, paper, timber and other products ensured that vessels were fully loaded on the coast run. That, however, is no longer the case and, as a result, the importance of the route was reduced as far as shipping companies were concerned.
That, in turn, had reduced Kitimat Works’ ability to leverage a ship.
“Simply put, we’ve been getting bumped,” Henning said.
On top of that, because the ships were not running full, Rio Tinto-Alcan’s costs had tripled. Those increased costs combined with no guarantee of ships coming in when RTA needed them had led to the decision to send ingots by road to Prince Rupert for containerization and shipment to Asia.
Henning admitted that the switch to road was an added cost. But “thankfully” Prince Rupert was there to handle the traffic. Otherwise the smelter’s product would have to be trucked to Vancouver, “a major headache”.
Henning also had praise for the company doing the hauling to Prince Rupert, Bandstra Transportation.
“These guys have come to the plate really well,” he said.
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