Originally Posted by PSJ harbour
Good day,
I am new to this thread and was quite impressed with some of the comments. I want to share a few opinions and thoughts on my end regarding PSJ and business.
I do a bit of longshore work myself and I can tell you that not many are aware of this CSX rail line. Several years ago CMA feeders were coming weekly to serve hurricane relief cargo for Haiti from the states, and Pan Am was hauling it at the time, now CSX. We only see NBSR engines in the city, so not many people are aware that CP, CN and CSX all serve PSJ. The CN engines do bring the potash directly to the Terminal, so CN engines are seen on the CN line periodically. Other than that, it is rare to see CP or Pan Am when they hauled here.
Halifax is served by CN solely, and with no competition, customers are likely paying top dollar than other ports who have a few different hauling options. On the other hand, Halifax is ice free and deep, and more importantly just a slight sail off the sailing route from Europe to New York. Halifax has benefited from being a large port that can handle todays biggest container ships. Cma and now One is regularly calling Halifax with 360m ships. The issue with Halifax is space and the future. With sea levels rising, somebody is eventually going to have to put huge money into the CN line, which has already seen wash outs and have prevented cargo from moving. This is a major concern for Halifax, which is why there remains rumbling of building another deep water port in NS. Also, the truck traffic and congestion downtown continues to bottleneck the city centre.
Saint John now has three class 1 railways, and hoping CSX begins knocking on doors soon for cargo. When CP began, Hapag Lloyd jumped on board and cargo began rushing in and out. It happened too quickly and the port was not able to keep up and NBS could not keep up at all. We weren’t ready for the amount HL poured on at once. The AT3 service was lost, just as the new rail yard was in final stages. The port could certainly handle the AT3 service today, but this is a different subject all together. Once CP started, CN was no where to be seen, until the last few months, as they have began hailing CMA cargo regularly, nothing close to what CP hauls, but significant cargo, including reefers. So CN is certainly not out of the game in Saint John, which is great. It will be interesting to see what CSX does if they do come knocking. Hopefully they can tap into new cargo going down the eastern seaboard, but I can see them and CP going to battle for Chicago, Detroit and Midwest cargo.
The two HL lines calling here now dump off cargo specifically. One service dumps off cargo to reduce draft to get to Montreal, and the other drops cargo off before dumping off remaining cargo in Norfolk. Most of the inbound rail coming in are empties for the ONE service, but there are loads as well. So far Saint John has been used as a dumping ground for cargo, instead of loading. The expansion has helped this, however Saint John will never see a 366m ship at Rodney terminal. The 295 NYK ships take up the berth and the pilots have their hands full with the 295’s. They may be able to accommodate the 303m ships that are also wider, but not the size they anticipated. For this reason, Halifax will always have the upper hand regarding ship size handling.
Key points: Halifax is much bigger and can handle biggest ships in world and close to trade route.
Saint John is ice free, deep, can handle bigger ships than Montreal, and has three options via rail. Better North/South trade than Halifax.
Montreal is inland, much better for customers, but has huge costs for pilotage, ice breaking and draft restrictions. As ships continue to get bigger and bigger, Montreal will become less inviting and efficient for customers.
Please share and add thoughts!
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