It was barely a decade ago that Don Krusel, then chief executive of a remote, long-struggling bulk port in northern British Columbia (population 13,000), launched a bold blueprint that surprised many marine industry observers: a container terminal to foster trade between North America and Asia. He candidly qualified this strategy as “a Hail Mary pass for the port.” In fact, the visionary port helmsman had noticed, among other things, that thanks to the Great Circle route Prince Rupert was more than 1,000 nautical miles closer to Shanghai than Los Angeles-Long Beach. Moreover, it was served by CN, the railway with the most extensive reach of any carrier right to the Gulf of Mexico. Carrying the torch today with comparable zeal is Shaun Stevenson, president and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority since June of last year.
Like his predecessor, Stevenson is pursuing an ambitious agenda: for arguably the fastest-growing container port on the continent to become Canada’s second busiest maritime gateway after Vancouver, overtaking Montreal, within five years.
A significant percentage of Prince Rupert cargo volume is with the US Midwest via the CN rail network. In 2018, Prince Rupert handled one million TEUs (an increase of 12%) and 27 million metric tons of total cargo. The forward momentum is continuing in 2019, with container throughput up 8% in the period to end April.
The plan’s research was completed with the assistance of AECOM, a global leader in infrastructure planning and development. It considered capital costs, operating efficiencies, optimization of construction sequencing to minimize disruptions to ongoing operations, and mitigation of human receptor impacts (air quality, noise and lighting) as criteria to determine the feasibility and sequencing of container terminal potential at the Port of Prince Rupert.
“Conducting this work ensures we have a clear understanding of the future potential for terminal development and contributes to a vision for the future of our container business to respond to the growing market demand for capacity at the Port of Prince Rupert,” explains Stevenson.
South Kaien Island Container Site
The master planning included the potential for further expansion of Fairview Terminal and the development of a second container terminal at the Port of Prince Rupert’s South Kaien Island site. This second terminal would add 2.5 million TEUs and was identified as the next phase of terminal expansion for the container business at the Port of Prince Rupert. This would follow the intended expansion of Fairview Container Terminal which DP World announced in 2018, increasing its current capacity from 1.35 million TEUs to 1.8 million TEUs by 2022. The original design capacity for the Fairview terminal was 500,000 TEUs.
Both the current Fairview Terminal and South Kaien island sites are in close proximity to expanding export logistics operations on Ridley Island, and will fully integrate with these operations following PRPA’s construction of the Fairview-Ridley Connector Corridor scheduled for the end of 2020. In this regard, the port received nearly C$22 million in funding from the Canadian government to support the C$100 million connector-corridor that will provide a physical platform for two new rail sidings and a private haul road between Fairview Container Terminal and Ridley Island Industrial Site.
Maksim Mihic, General Manager of DP World, has applauded a “development vision which enables Canadian trade and improves the balance between imports and exports through the northern corridor.”
“Our planned container terminal capacity expansion ensures Canadian shippers will be able to meet their supply chain needs well into the future, and will be well served in meeting its objectives of growing trade in the Asia Pacific region,” affirms Stevenson.
