Port of Vancouver Discussion

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Also remember that there are a limited number of anchorages in English Bay. The overflow anchor near the Gulf Islands.

Here's the Port of Vancouver page on anchorages:

https://www.portvancouver.com/about-us/f...-for-the-use-of-southern-b-c-anchorages/

I guess ships have more free reign when they anchor outside of a port terminal zone but they are trying to add more rules. Some ships anchor for two months/create lots of noise etc.

[Zepfancouver]

Needed to get a closer look. They're working 7 days a week. Must be 100s if not 1000s of parts to install. When it's all put together, the crew will be asking 'Anyone know what these extra parts are for?'

• Video Link

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Zepfancouver

Needed to get a closer look. They're working 7 days a week. Must be 100s if not 1000s of parts to install.

Do they come with Ikea screwdriver kits?

[Zepfancouver]

...and are the assembly instruction up to Ikea standards...These last 2 comments are timeless, someone will come across these Ikea references in the SSP Archives in the year 2521 and they will concur.

[jollyburger]

No lineup of ships but the container traffic is struggling in Vancouver for other reasons

The Port of Vancouver is now “bursting at the seams” when it comes to dealing with inbound containerized cargo.

The flood of cargo into B.C. ports, which follows the resumption of operations at several major Chinese ports following COVID-19 outbreaks, has severely strained operations for shippers scrambling to navigate through the cargo traffic jam.

Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA), described the situation as “very dire. I don’t think we’ve experienced anything like this previously.”

Rodgers said cargo infrastructure, warehousing and truck transport operators are used to dealing with 3% to 5% spikes in traffic, but the current cargo traffic surge amounts to 15% more than normal per day and has accumulated day-to-day in recent weeks.

“Drayage operators’ chassis are full, and there’s no room to move any containers,” Rodgers said of the situation in Vancouver. “Warehousing is busting at the seams. If there were short-term solutions, the industry would have reacted already; the industry is very nimble that way. No, this is somewhat of a crisis situation.”

Compounding the lack of transport capacity to move shipments and a dearth of storage for stranded containers, Rodgers noted, is a reciprocal lack of exports coming from B.C.’s Interior to refill import containers.

Without the export demand, empty containers are sitting in Vancouver, which further strains storage and handling capacity.

The issue of cargo containers not being in the right places at the right time has plagued global shipping since mid-2020.

Werner Antweiler, associate professor at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, said the seismic changes in the way people consume products and what they have been buying since the pandemic started have dramatically shifted demand on shipping routes. Demand for capacity on many routes has consequently skyrocketed while demand on other trade loops has plummeted.

Antweiler said that the containers with shipments heading into routes with little traffic are then stuck there after being unloaded because there is no demand to export cargo in the other direction.

The result? Empty containers that no one is willing to pay to move to where they are needed.

“We need to look at how these containers can be moved, because right now, no one is willing to pay for it,” Antweiler said. “It’s a missing market. We have to figure this out, and this will require some co-ordination to make sure in the future there’s a way – a mechanism – to pay for the moving of stranded containers to where they are needed. Perhaps through an industry-wide insurance or something like that … because it’s a very clear problem staring us in the eye.”

Meanwhile, CIFFA has been meeting with stakeholders to find a long-term solution so similar cargo traffic spikes do not have the same crippling effect on Vancouver’s ports.

One of Rodgers’ key concerns is the amount of time port expansion projects take to move through Ottawa.

He pointed to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s Terminal 2 project at Roberts Bank and Deltaport Berth 4 (DP4), a competing container terminal expansion project proposal from GCT Global Container Terminals Canada, as examples of what would have mitigated the port’s current shipping bottleneck had either been approved in anything approaching a timely manner.

“We are 13 years since the Roberts Bank terminal expansion plans first hit the table,” Rodgers said. “Government cannot sit on their hands and wait so long to make their decisions.… The Roberts Bank terminal, even if it gets approval today, will not be done until 2030. That’s just unbelievable that a project is going to take over 20 years for something that was put forward because there was a perceived need. It’s now an urgent need, and we are still many years away.

“We are not going to pick sides,” he added when asked if there’s a preference for either Terminal 2 or DP4. “There’s merits to both, and at this point, we can use both today. Either would add important relief that doesn’t exist today.”

https://biv.com/article/2021/10/cargo-congestion-surge-swamps-vancouver

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

No lineup of ships but the container traffic is struggling in Vancouver for other reasons

I wonder if we're getting more volume here because shippers are looking for alternatives to the clogged US ports...?

And what is it with containers, anyway? Is it really more expensive for an Asian manufacturer or shipping company to buy a brand new container than it is to pay for shipping one back from North America? You'd think the return shipping cost would be relatively cheap since they're light and the ship has to make the voyage anyway, loaded or not.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

I wonder if we're getting more volume here because shippers are looking for alternatives to the clogged US ports...?

And what is it with containers, anyway? Is it really more expensive for an Asian manufacturer or shipping company to buy a brand new container than it is to pay for shipping one back from North America? You'd think the return shipping cost would be relatively cheap since they're light and the ship has to make the voyage anyway, loaded or not.

It's a long list of issues. China will make 5.4 new containers this year.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-did-all-the-shipping-containers-go-11628104583

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

It's a long list of issues. China will make 5.4 million new containers this year.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-did-all-the-shipping-containers-go-11628104583

Good article, thanks for the link!

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

And what is it with containers, anyway? Is it really more expensive for an Asian manufacturer or shipping company to buy a brand new container than it is to pay for shipping one back from North America? You'd think the return shipping cost would be relatively cheap since they're light and the ship has to make the voyage anyway, loaded or not.

In normal times, the shipping cycle worked like this: Send loaded container from Asia to N.A. > Unload goods in destination city > Send empty container to N.A. manufacturer to load with their goods > Send container back to port, load on ship, and ship across to Asia > Unload goods in Asia, send container to Asian exporter, and repeat the cycle. In this cycle, the container spends most of its time in transit and did not sit in the container yard.

Because of the backlog of Asian exports, shipping companies can now charge significantly more to bring Asian goods to N.A. Therefore, those shippers don't waste time by sending the container to a N.A. manufacturer to load with goods, so empty containers are returned to the port right away to wait for an available container ship.

This problem is compounded by the flood of full containers that arrive in the port and wait to be loaded on to train or truck. More full containers + more empty containers means the container yard has no excess capacity.

Vancouver may be seeing more activity because of clogged US ports, but remember that Canadian manufacturers have been waiting for components from China as well. Even a couple weeks when container flow slowed last March or April may have been enough to have had a knock-on effect that is still being felt today.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

Good article, thanks for the link!

The New York Times also had a podcast on this topic last week, if you prefer audio as a medium.

[Zepfancouver]

Visualizing California's stunning shipping gridlock https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/23/business/20211023-california-ports-animation/index.html

[officedweller]

Commissioner Street Rail Expansion Project

...
About the project
CP is proposing to expand its existing railway infrastructure in Vancouver to improve capacity and fluidity on the south shore of the Port of Vancouver. The proposed rail expansion project is funded by CP with financial support from the Government of Canada through the National Trade Corridors Fund. The proposed expansion is being undertaken as part of the Commissioner Street Road and Rail Realignment Project, within the Burrard Inlet Road and Rail Improvement Program. The program includes road improvements, led by the port authority, that will improve truck traffic flow and safe and efficient access to terminal facilities and make lands available for the installation of additional railway infrastructure by CP.

The Commissioner Street Rail Expansion Project includes two additional tracks proposed to the north of the existing rail yard between the Commissioner Street overpass and Victoria Drive in East Vancouver. The additional tracks are intended to increase storage capacity and improve operations for existing Port of Vancouver rail customers.
...
Project phases
Technical assessments – 2021
Project and Environmental Review permit application – Summer 2021
Public engagement period – Fall 2021
Final design – Winter 2022
Project Environmental Review permit determination – Winter 2022
Anticipated construction start – Spring 2022
Anticipated construction completion – Fall 2022

https://www.cpr.ca/commissionerstreet

PowerPoint Presentation:
https://www.cpr.ca/en/community-site/Doc...entation%20-%20November%2017%202021.pptx


https://www.cpr.ca/commissionerstreet

[jollyburger]

Expect a lot of ships to be parked in English Bay

Expert: Few alternatives for cargo vessels at Vancouver port as rail links remain broken
By Chuck Chiang | November 18, 2021, 12:18pm

For a port already dealing with congestion and traffic jams prior to this month’s “atmospheric river” rainstorm disaster, the cutting off of rail cargo links to Vancouver presents another major hurdle that provides few alternatives for a quick resolution.

The situation is especially problematic for operators of shipping vessels handling bulk cargo (i.e. grain, coal and potash), as these ships have little choice but to try to wait out the rail outages for their cargo to arrive at Port of Vancouver.

According the Port of Vancouver’s eHub data, there are currently 66 vessels in the port – 26 at berth and 40 at anchorage awaiting a berth opening. Of those, there are now a whopping 20 grain-carrier vessels (4 at berths and 16 at anchorage) waiting to bring Canadian products to markets in Asia.

For these vessels, the options are to wait and to wait some more, said Trevor Heaver, professor emeritus at UBC’s Sauder School of Business and past president of the International Association of Maritime Economists.

“For the bulk trades, it is basically no options available,” Heaver said. “While there is always the exception – in the past, when lumber was a more prominent cargo, you might load some here and then top off in Washington state – the dominant trades now like coal, grain and fertilizers all have companies who chartered specific ships to carry specific cargoes from specific terminals.

“That means it’s very unlikely to take a rail movement of grain from Alberta and Saskatchewan that was going to route through Vancouver and route that movement to another port in the Pacific Northwest. It’s very hard to do.”

However, there are some exceptions – mostly with larger companies that have facilities at other ports, Heaver noted.

“Some bulk shippers do have a small relief valve,” he said, noting Teck Resources Ltd.’s coal exports and Canpotex’s potash shipments having alternative terminals at other ports. “Bulk shippers may be able to divert to these other terminals if these other terminals haven’t been going full-out already. I don’t know how much additional throughput those terminals could manage, although one would assume they’d be able to manage some.”

That is exactly the case with Teck, which confirmed it has rerouted some shipments of steelmaking coal to Prince Rupert’s Ridley Terminals. Canpotex, which has been exporting through a Kinder-Morgan operated terminal in Portland, Ore., in addition to Vancouver, is now also routing some shipments south of the border to avoid the blockage in southwestern B.C.

But even for bulk trades with multi-port alternatives and container ships – which routinely make calls at multiple ports along the west coast of North America and have more opportunities to unload at another port if Vancouver is closed – the solution of bypassing the Lower Mainland is a limited one.

That’s because the level of port congestion in the United States this year has been well-documented and unprecedented in its own right. Ports like Long Beach and Los Angeles have been so congested that they have impletmented a queuing system requiring all incoming ships to wait about 150 miles (241 kilometres) off the California coast for berths to open.

Even as Long Beach sees limited capacity at its terminals, volume last month still managed to hit second-busiest of all time for October (bested only by October 2020), and 24/7 operations have been continuing for some time.

“If you look at the container business, under normal circumstances, the containers that would be discharged here could be discharged in other ports instead of being taken back to Asia,” Heaver said. “But all the ports [on North America’s west coast] are highly congested. So how much flow-through are you going to be able to achieve? I don’t know.”

So, as it stands, the only hope for relief will depend on CP and CN Rail repairing their tracks accessing Port of Vancouver as soon as possible. Neither companies have provided a timeline for when repairs will be completed.

Heaver can remember no local port delays to this degree stemming from natural disasters, other than previous cases of earthquakes disruption ports in Japan. But that market’s port structure means there are ample alternatives if one port has to shut its doors for long periods.

That, unfortunately, just isn’t the case for Vancouver.

“[Vancouver] can’t be replaced 100% for a much, much longer time horizon than overnight,” Heaver said. “You simply cannot shift it; Vancouver is a major port. In bulk trade, it’s a dominant port.

“I don’t know quite how to capture [the seriousness of the disruption] except to say the flow of goods has stopped. The trains aren’t moving... This is all part of a system. When the system breaks, there’s only a certain amount of flexibility a system has.”

https://biv.com/article/2021/11/expert-f...-vancouver-port-rail-links-remain-broken

[Metro-One]

I was thinking this might end up being a prime example of why it’s good to have a secondary pacific Canadian port in Prince Rupert.

Not sure how much can be rerouted there but at least some shipping can be done.

[aberdeen5698]

CN bought itself some redundancy when it took over the former BC Rail line to Prince George - that provides it with an alternate route to connect to the rest of Canada that CP lacks. It's my understanding that even this line washed out at Rutherford Creek (a few km south of Pemberton), but I suspect it will be faster to get that one bridge back in service than the multiple breaks in the line through the Fraser Canyon, especially considering that road access to get equipment to those sites is also compromised.

Another issue in the Canyon is the unidirectional running agreement between CN and CP. I'm sure there's provision in that agreement for operations when one line is compromised, but I wonder if both sides will pool their resources to get one line fixed first.

[madog222]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

CN bought itself some redundancy when it took over the former BC Rail line to Prince George - that provides it with an alternate route to connect to the rest of Canada that CP lacks. It's my understanding that even this line washed out at Rutherford Creek (a few km south of Pemberton), but I suspect it will be faster to get that one bridge back in service than the multiple breaks in the line through the Fraser Canyon, especially considering that road access to get equipment to those sites is also compromised.

AFAIK the former BC Rail line was still not in use between Squamish and Williams Lake since last year.

I wonder how fast they could have gotten it back in service if there were no washouts.

[hollywoodnorth]

https://ipolitics.ca/2021/11/26/vancouver-port-authority-calls-b-c-floods-a-wakeup-call/

On Wednesday, Ottawa announced up to $4.1 million to help the port authority develop 16 hectares of land to store empty cargo containers, thereby freeing up space at the port and relieving bottlenecks.




I wonder where that 16 hectares is ... Delta I assume?

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by hollywoodnorth

https://ipolitics.ca/2021/11/26/vancouver-port-authority-calls-b-c-floods-a-wakeup-call/

On Wednesday, Ottawa announced up to $4.1 million to help the port authority develop 16 hectares of land to store empty cargo containers, thereby freeing up space at the port and relieving bottlenecks.

I wonder where that 16 hectares is ... Delta I assume?

No, it's Richmond.

[fredinno]

Originally Posted by Changing City

No, it's Richmond.

Do you know the exact location of the site?

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by fredinno

Do you know the exact location of the site?

From the article:

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority will be using an undeveloped 40-acre parcel of land at the foot of No. 8 Road in Richmond to help address supply chain bottlenecks in the wake of the recent flooding in B.C.

The site, which lies on port authority land near the south arm of the Fraser River, will be used as temporary empty container storage.

...