China eagerly awaits progress on the North America container scene

In the competitive world of International shipping, will Canada catch up with the progress and the time frame that China is looking for?

That seems to be the questions overseas, after a recent seven day tour of China, by International trade Minister David Emerson and a number of British Columbia representatives, including a local delegation representing the Port of Prince Rupert.

With China on the verge of further explosion on the world trading scene, including a huge container terminal that dwarfs any plans in North America, there is a concern that Canada and in particular Prince Rupert may not be developing fast enough to catch the next wave of trade coming soon.

The interest in Prince Rupert from Chinese officials has the Port Corporation talking up the plans for a phase two construction addition to the soon to be completed phase one of the Container Port. And even at that, Chinese officials say that more capacity will be required to meet the growing demands of international shipping.

The Daily News featured the details in its Wednesday edition.


MINISTER'S TRIP TO CHINA FULL OF TALK ABOUT RUPERT
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Page one

There is an aggressive appetite in China for expanded container handling facilities in Prince Rupert, said a federal government representative following a recent visit overseas.

“When we told them the city is on side, the province is on side and the federal government is on side ... they really started getting aggressive, getting excited about the opportunity,” said James Moore, Parliamentary Secretary for the Asia Pacific Gateway.

Moore recently returned from a week-long tour of major Chinese cities led by David Emerson, the Minister of the Pacific Gateway.

The delegation included government representatives, Don Krusel, president and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, as well as representatives from CN and CP Rail, Vancouver ports and the Vancouver Airport Authority. They visited developments like the Yangshan Port in Shanghai, which will be able to handle 20 million TEUs (average sized containers) by 2020. By comparison, when Phase One of the Fairview Container Terminal opens next October, it will be able to handle 500,000 TEUs.

For Moore, it was clear that B.C. needs to move quickly to take advantage of the coming tide of trade from Asia.

“We are readying the West Coast to receive more trading opportunity from China, in particular in Prince Rupert,” he said.

“The rail line there is only at 15 per cent capacity, the port is growing, we’ve made new investments in security, it’s positioned perfectly internationally, three days closer to China than any West Coast port.

“This is an incredible opportunity for British Columbia, an incredible opportunity for Canada and we don’t want to miss out on it.”

Don Krusel, CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, said that while in China he spoke about Phase Two of the Fairview Container Terminal.

The second phase will see the port’s capacity expanded to two million TEUs a year.
Krusel said he also spoke about a second terminal, which would double that capacity to four million TEUs annually.

“The focus now is on how fast we get Phase Two up,” he said.

Clearly, recognition of the port and its advantages is becoming well know.
“Ten years ago, it was ‘Who is the port of Prince Rupert?’ I was there 18 months ago and they were just becoming aware of us. This time, everybody wanted to talk about Prince Rupert and know more about Prince Rupert.”

However, there was also a sense that the port operators overseas want to see growth closer to their own scale before they’ll believe in the Pacific Gateway concept.

“There are some clear concerns talk is cheap,” said Krusel.

“They are building container ports to handle 20 million TEUs, and Prince Rupert is coming with 500,000 and Vancouver has plans for a second berth with 400,000.”

“It was good for government representatives to hear that because that’s what we and industry have been continually saying to government — that we need faster action on infrastructure development ... or we will lose the opportunity our geography offers us.”

Moore also noted that the clock is ticking. The Panama Canal, for example, plans to have finished its expansion by 2012 and be able to handle the world’s largest container ships, offering an alternative trade route for shippers.