Port touts more development for Prince Rupert

The Opinion 250 website out of Prince George has a piece on the development of the Port of Prince Rupert.

It follows the progress of phase one and examines some of the planning in place for phase two.

The story also comes with a hint of development locally from the likes of Wal Mart, Best Buy and Canadian Tire, hints which could mean warehousing facilities possibly locating in the area.

We provide the full story below.

Prince Rupert Port Development Full Steam Ahead
By 250 News
Sunday, January 14, 2007 03:55 AM


October 1st is the set opening date for the Prince Rupert Port, but the expansion plans are already under way. “We believe the day we open we will already be at capacity (half a million TEU’s per year) says Shaun Stevenson, the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for the Port of Prince Rupert.

The project remains on budget and on schedule, with the cranes expected to arrive in July and the first ships arriving no later than October 1st.

He says retailers like Walmart, Best Buy and Canadian Tire are already looking at how Prince Rupert can fit into their shipping plans. He says they are in the 11th hour of negotiations with some shipping companies and are just waiting for some confirmation from some Asian ports.
The expansion of the terminal is already in the planning process and will be completed in 2011. The expansion will increase the capacity to handle 1.5 million TEU’s. The environmental review process is already underway as is First Nations consultation.

There is also work underway on Terminal 2. That terminal will have a 2 million TEU capacity. It is expected that terminal, to be located south of Prince Rupert, could likely come on stream 2016 or 2017. “As soon as we start construction of the Fairview expansion, we will start working on Terminal 2.”

“Prince George has already done some preliminary studies and could come up with 60 thousand TEU’s per year of forest products” says Stevenson. He says there are other products, like seafood for example, as he says as may as 100 thousand TEU’s could handle seafood alone, another 80,000 could be uses to ship beef products or pork.

Stevenson says the driving force is the demand on the eastern seaboard for products from Asia, the economic opportunity for B.C. and Canada is what we come up with the backhaul to Asia.
The potential for growth is only held back by the restrictions under the Canada Marine Act which limits the borrowing capacity of the Port authority. There is also a need for the Federal Government to engage in what Stevenson calls “meaningful consultation with First Nations to ensure Port lands are unencumbered for development.”

Posted on Sunday, January 14, 2007 03:55 AM in News by 250 News