The Port of Prince Rupert relays its latest public relations release
opinion250.com/blog/view/190 … +the+world
So when does phase two start? When’s the town going to boom?
The town is booming, haven’t you noticed? Time for a reality check here, the recession in the US is not quite over yet, all the container traffic through this port is entirely dependent on the US economy, we are not likely to see the expansion of phase two or even one and a half, until such time as container movements on the west coast of North America return to pre-recession volumes, as at present they are still way down from what they were and there is still far too much unused container capacity at other facilities in other ports, ( Vancouver, Delta port, Fraser-Surrey, Seattle, Portland, Long Beach, L. A., etc.) some of which are offering huge financial incentives to encourage more business at their facilities. All of the big players involved ( Shipping lines, terminal operators, investors, various levels of government, etc.) must look at the big picture before going out and spending hundreds of millions of $ to create even more container capacity, regardless of this ports obvious geographic and logistic competitive advantages, and the great jobs that everyone here locally are doing.
Do you mean that these incentives are direct result of the recession and that this financial stimulus is giving the southern ports an unfair advantage over Prince Rupert until such time as the recession ends and the stimulus packages are ended? I’ve never heard that argument before. I have heard repeatedly that Long Beach is plugged, that the turnaround times are ridiculous, and have seen the logistics reports that clearly show that shipping through PR can save a week or more over going through CA.
However, money is king…but for most businesses time is money, too.
I am no economics or industry expert by any stretch of the imagination, and am not certain how or why these incentives that I had recently read about were being offered by other ports, even though they are all reporting that business is increasing steadily in the last year or so, they still have not gained back all that was lost at the initial onset of the global downturn in 07 / 08.
As I understand it, ocean freight rates for containers are controlled by the shipping lines, and they have managed the available capacity since the start of the recession by taking many of the smaller and older ships out of service, and by reducing the number of containers available for service, ( supply and demand ) this combined with rising fuel prices is helping keep freight rates high, but some of the other individual container handling facilities in other ports that have still not returned to full capacity from pre-recession volumes, have offered reduced rates to the shipping lines in order to encourage more business through their docks and facilities.
The basic transportation logistics and reduced turn around times here for Vessels, railcars, containers, for any and all movement through this port are significantly less than any other west coast port, ( and in some cases a mere fraction of those in some US ports ) and the same is true for grain, coal and also potash when it happens, and this is what made this port what it is, and will help sell this port in the future. Not to mention the great work by everyone here locally, from the Port Authority, CN rail, the terminal operators, Stevedoring companies, the ILWU and workers at all the facilities, PRG and RTI. But in our need to continue to be optimistic we must also keep our expectations realistic in terms of what is happening globally.
No Ayejaye’s needed here, please keep it real.
Some of us are looking to see if there’s savings in getting a container full of minitrucks to Rupert vs Vancouver.
I know some locals (in both Rupert and Terrace) had some Japanese cars brought in via the Prince Rupert container port. I think the stumbling block is the customs broker stuff.