Fairview Terminal's accumulative container throughput to the end of the third quarter 2008 totaled 102,775 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units). On a quarterly basis, container volumes increased 281% from the first three months (21,040 TEUs) to the third quarter (59,220 TEUs).

The jump in throughput is a result of the COSCO-CKYH Alliance's weekly CEN service that began calling on the port July 8 with 7,400 & 8,200 TEU vessels, as well as the continued increase of containers from the Alliance's initial PNW service.

"Our month-over-month container throughput is seeing significant growth," notes Prince Rupert Port Authority President & CEO Don Krusel. "This certainly speaks well of the demonstrated velocity of the entire supply chain system and shippers' satisfaction with the terminal's performance."

Highlights of the year-to-date traffic included: 50 container vessels have called on the terminal; 62,365 TEUs from Asia offloaded for North America destinations; 40,423 TEUs were loaded for export; 33.6% of containers for export were fully laden.

TONNAGE STEADY
The Port of Prince Rupert handled 7,736,935 metric tons of cargo to the end of the third quarter, a slight increase of 70,000 tons compared to the same period in 2007, despite the downturn in the global economy.

While Prince Rupert Grain traffic is down 28%, the decline was offset by the 1.03 million tons in containers handled at Fairview Terminal. The year-end for the grain industry is July 31, when grain supply from the 2007 crop is typically low in the last quarter (May-July), while demand during the year has been high. According to the Canadian Wheat Board, end-of-year grain stocks were very low at 3.9 million tons, equivalent to a drought year.

Throughput at Ridley Terminals is up slightly over 2007, while raw log shipments decreased to 92,427 tons in 2008 compared to 134,240 tons to the end of September 2007.