CN continues to see growth for Fairview Terminal

Canadian National is expressing optimism that the volume of trade through the Fairview container Port is going to continue to grow. Either through another shipping line calling at the North coast port or through increased volume from their existing customers.

In a story in the Prince George Citizen, James Foote, the railroad's Vice President of marketing and sales, is quoted as telling a financial conference in New York City that the new container service is adding 100 million dollars to the CN revenue accounts. He added during his presentation that the potential for up to 300 million dollars in revenues through Prince Rupert is certainly within reach.

The Citizen article also highlighted how the Rupert port is adding to the ability of a Prince George based industry to compete in the world marketplace, sending containers filled in the interior city through Prince Rupert and on to Russia.

CN upbeat on Rupert port
Thursday, 20 March 2008, 02:00 PST
GORDON HOEKSTRA

Prince George Citizen

CN says it expects to add another customer or have its existing customers grow at the new $170-million container-handling facility in Prince Rupert this year.

"I am optimistic we will overachieve in our expectations this year by having another customer make Prince Rupert it's port of call, or have our existing customer base there increase that capacity," CN vice-president of marketing and sales James Foote told a JP Morgan aviation and transportation conference on Wednesday.

"Had the market for inbound container business not softened somewhat on the U.S. west coast this year, I believe we would have had that facility sold out to capacity," said Foote.
CN figures that the new container business is adding about $100 million in revenue, but that could grow to $300 million.

The first vessel unloaded containers in Prince Rupert last October.

COSCO, or the China Ocean Shipping Co., the world's sixth largest shipping company, in conjunction with the CKYH Alliance, are the first shippers to use the Prince Rupert port. The CKYH Alliance includes the Korean firm Hanjin, Japan's K-Line and Taiwan-based Yang Ming.
The $170-million container port has been lauded as a boost for northern B.C.'s economy, not only from in-bound container traffic, but from the potential for out-bound traffic as well.

Recently, Prince George-based Del-Tech Manufacturing announced it had reached a deal for a special container service with CN that allowed the company to compete in the global market.
Saving money on shipping individual containers, allowed Del-Tech to ship 60 containers bound for Russia from CN's intermodal facility in Prince George.

The federal and provincial governments contributed $30 million each to the project, and Maher Terminal invested another $60 million. CN invested millions more in upgrades, including a container loading facility at Prince George.

The Prince Rupert terminal can handle 500,000 containers. A $650-million second phase will raise that capacity to two million containers by 2011.

Plans have also been started for a second terminal that would add a further two to three million containers worth of capacity by 2015. The Port of Vancouver handles 1.5 million containers a year.