And it's on to Chicago....

The first load of containers has left the North coast, followed by express trains scheduled on Thursday and Friday to take the Cosco Antwerp's Prince Rupert bound cargo on to the store shelves of the American economy.

The Prince George website Opinion 250 proclaimed the good news on Wednesday and The Prince George Citizen shared in the excitement Thursday. Both welcoming the debut of container service on the North coast, and examining the impact that the port will have on the region and when Prince George will benefit from the new transportation link to Asia.

For Prince George it's all in the back haul, when the westbound trains come a calling there for a number of products that they hope to sell to the Far East. Prince George economic observers are already suggesting that joint projects between BC and Asia are being considered, hopefully to increase employment and investment options for the Central Interior city.

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They're the kind of initiatives that many in Prince Rupert hope can happen here, projects that can create some employment and industry to go along with the Pacific gateway that has just opened up for business.

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Some background information was presented at the Citizens on line site today.

Container impact ‘so big’, says mayor
(News) Thursday, 01 November 2007, 09:04 PST
MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff

Prince Rupert's ship may have arrived but Prince George will have to wait a while longer before its train comes in.

The Cosco Antwerp, capable of holding up to 2,750 40-foot containers, began unloading at Prince Rupert's new Fairview container terminal on Wednesday.

A CN Rail container train capable of carrying up to 365 containers was there to pick up the load for its 105-hour trip to Chicago. Another two trains slated to depart today and Friday will handle the Antwerp's remaining cargo.

But CN spokeswoman Kelli Svendsen said the impact on Prince George won't be felt until those trains make their trip back to Prince George and stop at the new intermodal terminal.

"It's backhaul. The train doesn't stop in Prince George on the way to Chicago because that's the advantage of the port being in Prince Rupert," Svendsen said. "The advantage of Prince George is that on the way back, the train stops and will be loaded with containers from the area destined for Asia through Prince Rupert."

Svendsen did not have more details on when the first train will stop in Prince George and the kinds of items the containers from this region will carry.

"Currently, we're still discussing with customers around the intermodal and distribution centre," she said.

It's expected those containers will be used to ship pulp and other bulk material at the outset, but Mayor Colin Kinsley predict bigger things to come over the coming years.

"It is so big, I don't think people realize how big it's going to be," Kinsley said. "It can lead to such a diversification in the economy, first being transportation logistics. Specialty grains coming out of the Peace River trucked here and shipped to Asia. More specialized wood products -- some of the pine beetle wood that's been naturally drying out in the forest being cut into cants (large blocks of wood) and put into containers and shipped off to Chinese furniture manufacturers."

Kinsley sees the day when laminated wood products will be manufactured in Prince George for the Asian market, opening up big opportunities in the process.

"Right now, in the middle of the biggest fibre basket in the world, we don't have glue-lam production," he noted. "We don't laminate veneer lumber, we don't have parallel stand lumber, we don't have lignum strand lumber, we don't have any glue-lam. We could go much deeper into structural engineers wood products.

"There's just so much that could be done and the information is out there and the market is growing, so I think we take this challenge of the mountain pine beetle infestation and turn it into an opportunity."

And in answer to China's demands for minerals, Kinsley even sees smelting in the city's future.
"We're shipping concentrate and such literally hundreds of thousands of miles for processing, and that can all be done in this region and put onto trains and sent out to Asia," he said.

Asked about the impact of smelters on the city's air quality, Kinsley said they would use best technology and located properly.

"I've seen incinerators for burning garbage where there's no emissions, I've seen coal-generated electric plants where there's no emissions," he said. "I mean, it's very, very expensive but the technology is there and what I'm saying is if we're right on this incredible trade route and we're in the middle of primary metal extraction and precious metal extraction, why aren't we processing it here?

"I don't mean in downtown Prince George, I don't mean anywhere near the Bowl. There are areas where this can be accommodated and it can be accommodated because we have hydroelectric generation, we have the opportunity for bio-mass electricity generation, we have the water, we have natural gas, we have land.

"And any of that primary metal processing will lead to more manufacturing."

Initiatives Prince George president Gerry Offet said IPG has been talking to a B.C. businessperson and a Chinese forestry company who plan to establish as a joint venture a small mill to resize wood products for shipment to Asia for further processing.

Prince Rupert is home to North America's deepest harbour and is 58 hours closer to Asia than any other container terminal on the west coast.

The community of 15,000 people 720 kilometres west of Prince George has been added to the south loop of the Pacific North West Butterfly service jointly operated by Cosco Container Lines and Hanjin Shipping.

Hanjin is operating five vessels within the service, while Cosco has four. The nine ships can each load 5,500 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units). Modern containers are now 40 feet long.
The Hanjin London is next to dock at Fairview Terminal.

The recently-completed facililty can handle 500,000 TEUs a year and plans are in place to quadruple its size by 2011. The Port of Vancouver can handle 1.5 million TEUs a year.

They see the train a comin’

They’re counting down the days (and maybe the hours) until the first container ship arrives at the Fairview Terminal, with an arrival time of 6 am on October 31st the new era for the Port of Prince Rupert will begin and there could be no prouder partner than CN Rail.

The first of what are hoped to be many COSCO ships will pull into Prince Rupert harbour on that day and when she does, CN Rail is hopeful of an exciting fourth quarter generated by the massive flow of containers bound for North American markets.

It’s estimated that half the containers on the first vessel to call on Fairview will be unloaded here, providing CN with the opportunity to deliver on their marketing strategy of being able to service North America faster from Prince Rupert.

The Daily News featured a front page story in Tuesday’s paper outlining CN’s review of the third quarter and its plans for the service and how they are hopeful that the new container terminal will bring "most exciting times" for the railroad.

CN RAIL COUNTING THE DAYS TO ARRIVAL OF PORT’S FIRST SHIP
Rail company says start of container flow this month is ‘most exciting news’
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Pages one and three

CN Rail is hoping to grow its intermodal container-handling business in the fourth quarter, starting with the first ship at Fairview Terminal on Oct. 31.

"Probably the most exciting news (for the fourth quarter) is 6 a.m. on Oct. 31, the first COSCO vessel pulls in to Prince Rupert. We are expecting, and we have confirmation because the vessel is already en route, that we will have very good vessel discharge volume from that vessel," said James M. Foote, CN vice-president of sales and marketing, during the company's third-quarter conference call yesterday.

"Those discharge volumes from COSCO should be enhanced as we go forward because we have an arrangement with Hanjin, sharing space on that boat with COSCO, and that will be adding volumes to the discharge there as we go forward."

COSCO was the first shipper to announce an agreement with CN and Maher Terminals to handle containers. Hanjin officials were optimistic last month that they too could be offloading containers, however no official agreement has yet been announced.

The vessels are part of the CKYH shipping alliance made up of four Asian-based companies.
Ships capable of carrying 5,500 TEUs (container units) from both COSCO and Hanjin will be moving on a circuit from various Asian port cities to Prince Rupert, Vancouver and Seattle. About half the containers on first vessel at Fairview are being off loaded in Prince Rupert, said Foote.

“In terms of the final destination for those boxes … about 70 to 80 per cent of that is going to the U. S.” said Foote.

“We are excited the volumes for the first call are this high… to kick off the service so to speak.”
He added that there is, within the shipping community, a desire to want to use Prince Rupert.
“It’s not only the steam ship companies who have been there to look at it, but the big-box companies,” he said.

CN has seen its intermodal traffic decline overall by one per cent in the third quarter. On the East Coast as some shipping lines have moved from Halifax to the port of Montreal. However, CN is optimistic it will see growth in its intermodal traffic operations in the fourth quarter.
“The outlook is very good,” said Foote.

While the rising Canadian dollar has not had a significant impact on the viability of CN’s Prince Rupert operation, the same cannot be said for the company’s third quarter financial results.
Hunter Harrison, CN Rails president and CEO, said CN had the best quarter possible given the poor market conditions in housing and forestry and the strong Canadian dollar.

“I don’t think the dollar will stay this way but I can’t tell you when it’s going to turn. I don’t think the housing market will stay this way but I can’t tell you when it’s going to turn,” said Harrison.

In addition, CN is calling for a strong outlook in the grain and coal sectors in Canada. Grain shipments were up 11 per cent in the third quarter and coal shipments were up 10 per cent.