Shodan
Sep 12, 2007, 12:42 PM
New B.C. port boosts city's role as Asian gateway
Capital region to become marshalling centre for goods en route to U.S., Central Canada
David Finlayson
The Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/edjn/20070912/33668-11118.jpg
Capital region to become marshalling centre for goods en route to U.S., Central Canada
PRINCE RUPERT - The $170-million investment is modest by the standards of Alberta oilsands projects.
But in Prince Rupert, B.C. -- whose economy has long been as gloomy as the thick fog that rolls in from the Pacific -- the container port that opens today is literally a lifesaver.
"I can't put it into words what it means to get to this point," says Don Krusel, CEO of Prince Rupert Port Authority. "It's been such a long journey and there have been such small milestones along the way, it seems almost surreal.
"When I was down at the terminal (three weeks ago) and saw those giant container cranes for the first time, it was overwhelming," says Krusel, who celebrates 20 years with the authority later this year.
Only five years ago this port, 1,460 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, was on the rocks. It had lost its vital pulp business to container facilities in Vancouver, and its lumber and coal volumes had declined alarmingly.
"We were looking death in the eyes," Krusel recalls.
Now, the Fairview container port is being talked up as the biggest thing to hit northwest B.C. since the railway reached the West Coast. Today's opening ceremony is expected to draw business leaders and politicians from the many communities that have a stake in the venture's success.
The list is long. It includes Chicago and Memphis, key centres on Canadian National's connection to the U.S. heartland; New York, home of Maher Terminals, which invested $60 million in the project; China, which will be a critical first user of the port; B.C. communities such as Prince George and the Tsimshian First Nations.
And it will benefit Canada's Pacific Gateway, especially Edmonton, Krusel says.
To mark the significance of the terminal to the city, Mayor Stephen Mandel leads a large Edmonton contingent flying out this morning and returning tonight.
CN's Edmonton container yard will be the main marshalling centre for huge trains of containers taking goods from booming Asian markets to the U.S. heartland and Central Canada.
Not only will communities along the corridor benefit from incoming container traffic, there is a new opportunity to fill empty containers going the other way, Krusel says.
"Our relationship with Edmonton is very important in the development of two-way trade. We have a tsunami of trade coming from Asia, but we don't yet have the same volume to go back."
He's confident it will come, and points to CN's specialty grain centre in Edmonton and other centres in northern Alberta and B.C. that can send forest products and other manufactured goods to Asia at more favourable shipping rates than in the past.
Traffic back to Asia is already higher than expected, and the first container ship from China doesn't hit Prince Rupert until the end of the month, Krusel says.
CHANGE THE FACE OF WEST
Former Alberta highways minister Walter Paszkowski, now economic development officer for Grande Prairie County and the province's representative on the port authority board, says the project will change the face of Western Canada by creating a whole new economic stream.
And major centres such as Edmonton and Prince George won't be the only beneficiaries, he says.
"There's a big need for container service to outlying areas. We're trying to get a satellite depot in Grande Prairie so some of our companies can take advantage of export opportunities.
"The exciting part is that Phase 1 is on budget and on schedule. That's a good indication of the quality of the planning that's taking place."
Like Krusel, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond can't believe it's finally happening.
"It's hard to put into words how important it is. We've been working on this for so long, and it's going to bring a major shift in economies for the whole corridor."
It will bring family-supporting jobs to a community that desperately needs them, and the city is already seeing a stream of investors interested in the area, he says.
"Two years ago you had to explain where Prince Rupert was. Now shippers around the world know all about us."
If things unfold according to the grand plan, with the $600-million Phase 2 due for completion in 2011, the Fairview terminal would eventually rival Vancouver and Seattle-Tacoma's vast container complexes, but without their transportation bottlenecks.
And with the first phase expected to hit capacity by this time next year, Krusel is confident it will happen. But just getting to this point has been a stormy trip, he says.
"People said we had a snowball in hell's chance of building a container port in such a remote area with no local market.
PHENOMENAL ADVANTAGE
"But we have a phenomenal geographic advantage. We are the shortest land and sea route to and from North America, we have a safe deep-water port, and we have a railway line that's only running at 15 per cent of capacity."
Still, it took a breakdown of the whole North American West Coast container port system during the initial flood of Chinese goods in 2001 for people to start looking for alternatives.
Krusel says B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, then Opposition leader, was a key driver. He promoted Prince Rupert nationally and internationally, and people began to take notice.
Maher Terminals and CN came on board, the provincial and federal governments promised money, and the pieces came together much more quickly than anyone expected.
"We are celebrating the opening Wednesday, but in reality it's much bigger than that." Krusel says. "We've created a whole new business model for container ports.
"It's not just a transportation infrastructure but a transformation infrastructure."
BY THE NUMBERS
- Prince Rupert is 30 hours closer to key Asian markets than any other West Coast North American port, and has the deepest harbour on the continent.
- The Fairview container port's $170-million first phase, which opens today, can handle the equivalent of 500,000 standard, six-metre-long containers a year.
- The $600-million Phase 2 will bring capacity to two million containers by 2011, doubling to an expected four million by 2020 -- just a million short of Vancouver's expected capacity that year.
- The three giant cranes that will load and unload the ships each weigh 1,800 tonnes and soar 30 storeys.
Journal Staff
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Capital region to become marshalling centre for goods en route to U.S., Central Canada
David Finlayson
The Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/edjn/20070912/33668-11118.jpg
Capital region to become marshalling centre for goods en route to U.S., Central Canada
PRINCE RUPERT - The $170-million investment is modest by the standards of Alberta oilsands projects.
But in Prince Rupert, B.C. -- whose economy has long been as gloomy as the thick fog that rolls in from the Pacific -- the container port that opens today is literally a lifesaver.
"I can't put it into words what it means to get to this point," says Don Krusel, CEO of Prince Rupert Port Authority. "It's been such a long journey and there have been such small milestones along the way, it seems almost surreal.
"When I was down at the terminal (three weeks ago) and saw those giant container cranes for the first time, it was overwhelming," says Krusel, who celebrates 20 years with the authority later this year.
Only five years ago this port, 1,460 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, was on the rocks. It had lost its vital pulp business to container facilities in Vancouver, and its lumber and coal volumes had declined alarmingly.
"We were looking death in the eyes," Krusel recalls.
Now, the Fairview container port is being talked up as the biggest thing to hit northwest B.C. since the railway reached the West Coast. Today's opening ceremony is expected to draw business leaders and politicians from the many communities that have a stake in the venture's success.
The list is long. It includes Chicago and Memphis, key centres on Canadian National's connection to the U.S. heartland; New York, home of Maher Terminals, which invested $60 million in the project; China, which will be a critical first user of the port; B.C. communities such as Prince George and the Tsimshian First Nations.
And it will benefit Canada's Pacific Gateway, especially Edmonton, Krusel says.
To mark the significance of the terminal to the city, Mayor Stephen Mandel leads a large Edmonton contingent flying out this morning and returning tonight.
CN's Edmonton container yard will be the main marshalling centre for huge trains of containers taking goods from booming Asian markets to the U.S. heartland and Central Canada.
Not only will communities along the corridor benefit from incoming container traffic, there is a new opportunity to fill empty containers going the other way, Krusel says.
"Our relationship with Edmonton is very important in the development of two-way trade. We have a tsunami of trade coming from Asia, but we don't yet have the same volume to go back."
He's confident it will come, and points to CN's specialty grain centre in Edmonton and other centres in northern Alberta and B.C. that can send forest products and other manufactured goods to Asia at more favourable shipping rates than in the past.
Traffic back to Asia is already higher than expected, and the first container ship from China doesn't hit Prince Rupert until the end of the month, Krusel says.
CHANGE THE FACE OF WEST
Former Alberta highways minister Walter Paszkowski, now economic development officer for Grande Prairie County and the province's representative on the port authority board, says the project will change the face of Western Canada by creating a whole new economic stream.
And major centres such as Edmonton and Prince George won't be the only beneficiaries, he says.
"There's a big need for container service to outlying areas. We're trying to get a satellite depot in Grande Prairie so some of our companies can take advantage of export opportunities.
"The exciting part is that Phase 1 is on budget and on schedule. That's a good indication of the quality of the planning that's taking place."
Like Krusel, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond can't believe it's finally happening.
"It's hard to put into words how important it is. We've been working on this for so long, and it's going to bring a major shift in economies for the whole corridor."
It will bring family-supporting jobs to a community that desperately needs them, and the city is already seeing a stream of investors interested in the area, he says.
"Two years ago you had to explain where Prince Rupert was. Now shippers around the world know all about us."
If things unfold according to the grand plan, with the $600-million Phase 2 due for completion in 2011, the Fairview terminal would eventually rival Vancouver and Seattle-Tacoma's vast container complexes, but without their transportation bottlenecks.
And with the first phase expected to hit capacity by this time next year, Krusel is confident it will happen. But just getting to this point has been a stormy trip, he says.
"People said we had a snowball in hell's chance of building a container port in such a remote area with no local market.
PHENOMENAL ADVANTAGE
"But we have a phenomenal geographic advantage. We are the shortest land and sea route to and from North America, we have a safe deep-water port, and we have a railway line that's only running at 15 per cent of capacity."
Still, it took a breakdown of the whole North American West Coast container port system during the initial flood of Chinese goods in 2001 for people to start looking for alternatives.
Krusel says B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, then Opposition leader, was a key driver. He promoted Prince Rupert nationally and internationally, and people began to take notice.
Maher Terminals and CN came on board, the provincial and federal governments promised money, and the pieces came together much more quickly than anyone expected.
"We are celebrating the opening Wednesday, but in reality it's much bigger than that." Krusel says. "We've created a whole new business model for container ports.
"It's not just a transportation infrastructure but a transformation infrastructure."
BY THE NUMBERS
- Prince Rupert is 30 hours closer to key Asian markets than any other West Coast North American port, and has the deepest harbour on the continent.
- The Fairview container port's $170-million first phase, which opens today, can handle the equivalent of 500,000 standard, six-metre-long containers a year.
- The $600-million Phase 2 will bring capacity to two million containers by 2011, doubling to an expected four million by 2020 -- just a million short of Vancouver's expected capacity that year.
- The three giant cranes that will load and unload the ships each weigh 1,800 tonnes and soar 30 storeys.
Journal Staff
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.