Word gets around about Fairview port

We first tipped Podunkians about the interest in our port from Alaska back on March 25th, now the word has gone national and international.

The Globe and Mail featured the increased awareness of our port from our northern neighbours in the national paper today. With a special from Cathryn Atkinson, who recounts much of the same territory we came across last month expanding on some of the aspects of development here and how it may spur a rush from the North.


TRADE
Alaska looking south to Prince Rupert port
CATHRYN ATKINSON
Special to The Globe and Mail
Friday, April 6, 2007

Alaska's state motto may be "North to the Future," but a growing number of its entrepreneurs are turning south to tie their fortunes in with the planned $170-million container port development at Prince Rupert.

Due to open in October, the container port is already prepared for an explosion of investment and trade activity in Asia, the U.S. Midwest and Ontario.

With a CN rail route to Chicago and Toronto that is one of the quickest on the continent, Prince Rupert is also the nearest point of entry to North America for ships travelling from Asia.
It is 700 kilometres closer to Shanghai than Vancouver and 1,900 kilometres closer than Los Angeles.

Now resource-rich Alaska wants in. The state's seafood, forestry products and minerals could be brought down by ferry along the Alaskan marine highway to reach both the Asian and the U.S. markets.

The Alaskan connection has the potential to be as important to the Prince Rupert port as many Asian nations, said Don Krusel, president and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

"A good reason for [Alaska's] excitement is that a proper trade corridor with North America and a proper shipping facility with the rest of the world has moved 600 miles closer to them," he said.

"That changes the economics of the logistics chain quite dramatically.

"I think there is an unlimited opportunity for Alaska."

Mike Round, who works for the chamber of commerce in the Alaskan coastal town of Ketchikan, said goods from the Panhandle are primarily shipped by barge to Seattle or Tacoma, Wash., taking more than 40 hours. The northerly container port at Anchorage is not an option because it is even farther away.

Prince Rupert is 140 kilometres south of Ketchikan, making it attractive to the southeastern region of the state in particular because it is about six hours away by ferry.

"I see this container transfer facility in Prince Rupert as being just an incredible opportunity for Alaska to get our goods to and from here at very competitive prices," Mr. Round said. "But take-up by our companies does depend on the rates set."

According to the port authority, the rates for moving containers both by sea to Asia and into the interior of North America by rail are being set by container-ship firms and CN. An announcement of the rates is expected in several weeks.

Mr. Round said access to the container port may also result in a boom in manufacturing in the state. Instead of raw materials being sent elsewhere to create goods for sale, they can now be built locally and shipped via Prince Rupert.

"For example, now there's opportunity in the timber industry to bring modular homes, or window or sash frames or value-added furniture," he said. "We've never been able to have that mentality because the means to move it hasn't existed."

With the expansion of rail access, he continued, Alaskan fish will reach Chicago in 108 hours.

"That is not any longer than sending the product down in a van to Seattle, which we do now," he said. Another problem for shipping Alaskan products to Washington is cost -- a proposed $50 surcharge is being considered on each container moving into and out of the state's ports. There is already a similar charge in place for Californian ports.

Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond has become an unofficial ambassador for his city's container port, making a dozen trips to Alaskan communities in the past year, largely to discuss its potential for the state. He met new Governor Sarah Palin at her inaugural ball in Juneau in January.

"I've been connecting people and making them aware of it in Juneau, Anchorage and around the southeast [of Alaska]. I mentioned the port development in Prince Rupert to Governor Palin, and she was already aware of it," he said.