Vancouver to expand capacity by 30%

Updated 3:00 p.m. ET, Wed Jun 9, 2004

By Courtney Tower
The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

The Port of Vancouver unveiled expansion plans that will increase port capacity 30 percent at two terminals in the downtown harbor next year and add four new berths outside the city in the coming years.

Gordon Houston, chief executive of the Vancouver Port Authority, told the agency's annual general meeting Tuesday that the C$160 million (US$117 million) expansion program now underway at the Vanterm and Centerm terminals in the downtown Burrard Inlet will be completed by the end of 2005. New equipment and facilities, and productivity gains, would increase container handling capacity for TSI Terminals and P&O Ports by 30 percent.

At the two-berth Deltaport container terminal at Roberts Bank outside the city, environmental assessments and other preliminary work are underway for a third berth, Houston said. That would be followed "by the development of a new three-berth container terminal, currently known as Terminal Two," he said. The Roberts Bank developments would increase Vancouver's total annual container capacity to 4 million TEUs by 2012 and to more than 5 million by 2020, he said.

Houston called for road and rail infrastructure expansion in British Columbia and Canada to meet the "extraordinary growth" of seaborne trade that started in the fourth quarter of 2003. Vancouver, like other West Coast ports, is "already seeing delays in cargo movements...as a result of road and rail congestion," he said.

Vancouver in 2003 experienced a 6 percent increase in total tonnage handled, a 7 percent increase in bulk cargo, a record 1.54 million TEUs of containerized cargo, and a 7 percent increase in operating revenues.

CP Rail rationing containers at Vancouver

JoC Online
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
By: Courtney Tower - The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

Canadian Pacific Railway, struggling to handle surging containerized freight at the Port of Vancouver, said it will limit the number of containers it will accept from shipping lines there each year.

The plan allocates container space "based on past volumes and growth projections," the railway said Tuesday. CP Rail would then provide railcars to meet the allocation.

Some ocean lines served by CP Rail already are on the system and talks with others are expected to be completed by the end of June. The railroad, headquartered in Calgary, would not discuss details of the discussions, but wants "to bring discipline to the traffic flow" and avoid "systemic delays caused by uncontrolled growth," said executive vice president Fred Green.

Traffic in Vancouver came to a standstill earlier this year as an unexpected surge in containers, mostly from China, caught CP Rail with too few rail cars and jammed train movements across its single-track route through the mountains of British Columbia.

"We are bumping up against capacity in certain corridors and the Western Corridor is a good example of that," said CP Rail spokesman Len Cocoliccio, adding that "we have been meeting with our customers to make sure that their volumes are sustainable. It's not a question of restricting trade, [but] we can control the volumes coming in, so that we can provide a level of service that satisfies everybody in the logistics chain."

To accommodate growing container volume, the carrier is adding 5,500 new double-stack rail cars as part of a fleet upgrade program, and 75 new locomotives this year. Remote-control technology will also allow it to haul more cars in a train. But the railroad has said that any long-term solutions to the capacity problem will require government changes to tax laws and regulations to ease its investment burden.

Bruce Burrows, vice-president of the Railway Association of Canada, said capital depreciation allowances in Canada are less than half as generous as in the United States.

CP arranges container allocation system to relieve congestion in Vancouver

Last Updated Tue, 22 Jun 2004 17:01:39

VANCOUVER - A big increase in imports from China has led Canadian Pacific Railway to arrange an allocation system for containers coming through Vancouver.

The railway said it carried 24 per cent more containers from Vancouver in the first quarter of 2004 than in the same period a year earlier. Demand for Chinese manufactured products accounts for a lot of the increase, it said Tuesday.

"No logistics system can accommodate significant unplanned volume increases like those that exceeded system capacity in the first quarter this year," Fred Green, a top CPR operations and marketing executive, said in a statement.

Containers were piling up on the docks, although the backlog has now been moved, CP spokesperson Len Cocolicchio said.

To avoid that recurring, CP, its shippers and the port have negotiated a capacity allocation system under which "all parties commit to a particular volume," Cocolicchio said.

He said he wasn't aware if any shippers had to cut shipments under the new system. It is based on historical use and estimated growth.

The allocations will discipline the traffic and avoid surges that create congestion.

CP has bought new cars and locomotives to boost capacity, but changes in taxes and regulations are needed before if can risk large-scale infrastructure investments, Green said.

Shares of Canadian Pacific Railway closed up 30 cents at $32.05 on the TSX.