The Port of Prince Rupert in Canada is undergoing several simultaneous upgrades to expand capacity amid drastic cargo volume growth.
The Port of Prince Rupert, located on Canada’s western coast in British Columbia, is expanding its throughput capacity with several simultaneous projects currently underway.
The port has the deepest natural harbor in North America, with a wide entrance into the inner harbor ranging in charted depth from 34 meters to 44 meters, according to the port’s 2016 information guide. There are no air draft restrictions, and the ice-free harbor can be entered at all times and seasons.
Between being a naturally deep port and experiencing strong financial growth in 2016, it’s no surprise the port is upgrading its facilities. The port recorded a net income of $49.2 million Canadian (U.S. $36.7 million) last on revenues of C$67.3 million, year-over-year increases of 90.9 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively.
In addition, the port has especially strong ties with Asia, being that it’s North America’s closest port to Asia by as much as three days. The primary freight types handled at Prince Rupert include containers, coal, grain, wood pellets, logs, and specialty cargo.
Container Growth. One of the most notable developments currently in progress at the Port of Prince Rupert is the Fairview Container Terminal’s Phase II North expansion project, which commenced in the first quarter of 2015 and is slated for completion in August 2017.
The Fairview facility is the port’s only container terminal, and the expansion will increase its annual handling capacity from 850,000 TEUs to 1.35 million TEUs.
The project involves the addition of three Malacca-max dock gantry cranes with a horizontal reach of 25 containers. The cranes are capable of working the largest vessels in the world and arrived May 13 aboard the heavy load carrier ship Zhen Hua 25.
The Fairview terminal already had four cranes with a reach of 22 containers wide, and those will continue to operate at the terminal following completion of the expansion, a Prince Rupert Port Authority spokesperson told American Shipper.
In addition to the three new cranes, the expanded terminal will include a second deep-water berth, and land reclamation to expand the container yard.
“On-dock rail capacity will also be expanded by densifying the current track configuration, which will be supported by a rubber-tired gantry crane operation,” the port said.
And a second project, the Fairview Container Terminal Phase II South expansion, is still being planned, according to the port spokesperson.
Inbound containers handled at the terminal generally move along Class I railway Canadian National’s (CN) mainline to the midwestern United States and eastern Canada, the port spokesperson said. Exports tend to be largely regional, consisting of containerized lumber and agricultural products.
Jean-Jacques Ruest, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at CN, told American Shipper everything imported into the port arrives in containers. The port’s most common import is automotive assembly parts, accounting for 20-25 percent of total imports. Other imports, which tend to be more seasonal, include retail garments, furniture and household goods.
The only railroad with direct access to the Port of Prince Rupert, CN transports about 25 percent of these imports to the greater Chicago area, while other common destinations include Memphis, Toronto and Montreal, Ruest said.
According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting, the Fairview Container Terminal is called by three fully cellular container services: the OCEAN Alliance’s transpacific CEN loop and AWE2/CPNW all-water service, which operate with six vessels with an average capacity of 10,000 TEUs and 16 ships with an average capacity of 8,495 TEUs, respectively, and the 2M Alliance’s six-vessel 6,009-TEU average TP9/Maple loop.
Fairview Container Terminal was the first dedicated intermodal ship-to-rail container terminal in North America when it commenced operations in 2007. The terminal was originally operated by Maher Terminal Holding Corp. of New Jersey up until 2015, when DP World Canada purchased the rights to operate the terminal.
The terminal has been off to a good start this year, having handled 1.9 million metric tons of foreign cargo during the first quarter, an 8.2 percent increase from the corresponding 2016 period.
When asked what prompted expansion at the terminal, the port spokesperson said it was part of the plan from the beginning of the terminal’s operation, and it was expected to come earlier than it did. At the grand opening celebration, he said fans were already shouting “Phase II, Phase II.”
Ridley Island. Montreal-based Ray-Mont Logistics is currently in the process of developing a container stuffing facility on the Ridley Island Industrial Site, which should be finished this fall, the port spokesperson said.
The operation will involve pulses and cereals, along with other specialty agricultural crops transported in hopper cars by rail from western and central Canada and the midwestern U.S., and the containers stuffed at the new facility will then be exported through the Fairview Container Terminal.
Ray-Mont’s 10-acre facility will feature a rail loop corridor in excess of 100 railcars, a grain dumper pit, and a conveyance system. The completed facility is expected to employ around 40 people.
Meanwhile, construction on a future propane export facility at the Ridley Island Industrial Site began this spring. The facility, dubbed the Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal, is expected to be in service by the first quarter of 2019, according to the port.
The AltaGas Ltd. facility, which will be able to ship up to 1.2 million metric tons of propane a year, is being constructed on a brownfield site with a history of industrial development, connections to existing rail lines, and an existing marine jetty with deep water access to the Pacific Ocean.
Propane will be transported to the terminal from natural gas producers in British Columbia and Alberta using the existing CN rail network.
AltaGas made a positive final investment decision to proceed with the construction, ownership and operation of the project in January 2017. The project will include rail car unloading facilities, refrigeration equipment, power generation, connection to BC Hydro’s grid, propane storage tanks, new piping, and the addition of new loading arms to Ridley Terminals Inc.’s existing berth.
