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New Prince Rupert port will launch‘era of growth’ for north coast
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BY JEFF LEE - VANCOUVER SUN
North America’s newest container port is not even built and John Brink is ready trying to figure out how to take advantage of it.
Brink, president of a small value-added forest products company in Prince George, said Friday Prince Rupert’s new container facility will dramatically alter the economy of Northern B.C.
Brink said his company, which produces finger-jointed lumber and laminated products, can’t get timely access to the Asia-Pacific through Vancouver’s congested port. The $170-million new container port in Prince Rupert, announced Friday, will take the brakes off his company and others in the north, who have been waiting for shorter rail access to the Pacific.
"Not only for us, this will have an absolutely immense impact on the northwest of the province, the whole length between Prince Rupert and Prince George," he said.
Federal Industry Minister David Emerson announced at a Vancouver Board of Trade breakfast that Ottawa will contribute $30 million to the port project, triggering an election-eve matching amount from the province and kick-starting the long-planned project.
New Jersey-based Maher Terminals Inc. will invest $60 million in cranes and equipment, and CN Rail is doubling its original investment to $30 million. Prince Rupert Port is also contributing $20 million.
CN Rail also said Friday it will invest upwards of $125 million in new rolling stock and locomotives to handle freight as volume grows at the new facility.
The facility is designed to take advantage of a massive growth in Asia-Pacific container traffic destined for the U.S. But it is also expected to be the biggest catalyst for economic growth in the north since the W.A.C. Bennett government began its northern hydro program in the 1960s.
No one was more ecstatic about Friday’s announcement than Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond, who said his city will never be the same once container traffic begins to move late next year.
"My feet have not touched the ground. I could literally walk on water right now," he said. "This really will launch us on an era of growth that will be uninterrupted for years to come. This is a fundamental change to the north coast and it will bring us an energy and critical mass from which there really is no retreat."
The project comes during an explosive growth in Pacific container traffic. Last year more than 19 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of containers made their way to North America from Asia-Pacific producers. Of that, fewer than two million TEUs went to B.C. The rest hit the major U.S. ports of Long Beach-Los Angeles and Seattle-Tacoma.
But by 2020, the B.C. Ministry of Small Business estimates more than 51.6 million TEUs
Will be shipped to North America, and B.C.’s share will be upwards of nine million units.
"There is literally a tsunami wave of containers hitting the West Coast of North America, and we’re going to be taking advantage of that," said Don Krusel, president and CEO of Prince Rupert Port. "This is a tremendous event for the port, and for Prince Rupert."
Krusel said bulldozers will begin clearing away the old Fairview terminal, where the new container port will be built, next month. Construction will begin in September, and the first containers could arrive by December, 2006.
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