The Port of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, is touting a new record of “crossing the 600,000 [twenty-foot equivalent units] annual throughput threshold for the first time.”
Halifax, along with the Port of Saint John in New Brunswick, is jockeying with other eastern coastal ports along North America to process more volumes. Halifax has access to eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest through Canadian railway CN (NYSE: CNI), including the cities of Montreal, Toronto and Chicago.
Halifax Port Authority President and CEO Capt. Allan Gray credited collaborative work between PSA Halifax, CN, the port authority, union members and others for the increase in throughput volume last year. Halifax moved 601,700 TEUs in calendar year 2022 through its two containerized cargo terminals, PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub and PSA Halifax Fairview Cove. The port also has the ability to handle ships with a carrying capacity as large as over 16,000 TEUs.
“In 2022, we started using the Joint Operation Centre for containerized cargo operations and that certainly helped find new efficiencies and maintain cargo fluidity with no vessel berthing delays during a second year of sustained supply chain disruptions,” Gray said in a Wednesday news release.
Investments to the port in 2022 included CA$7 million ($5.4 million) from the Canadian government to build a $15 million marine container examination facility that it said will significantly reduce inspection turnaround times and port congestion.
In 2023, the port is anticipating the arrival of two additional super post-Panamax cranes at PSA Halifax Atlantic Hub, as well as new yard handling equipment. Projects to increase yard handling space are also ongoing.
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