Prince RupertAn Express Gateway Asia-North America

Nov. 7, 2007
The new Fairview Container Terminal is now up and running at the port that is a days sailing time closer to Asia than Vancouver and Seattle in the US

The new Fairview Container Terminal is now up and running at the port that is a day’s sailing time closer to Asia than Vancouver and Seattle in the US and three days closer than the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach. The Fairview Terminal is operated by Maher Terminals of Canada whose executive vice president Sales & Marketing, Frans van Riemsdyk, notes, “Unlike most terminals in North America, the Fairview Terminal is specifically designed for the efficient movement of containers between vessel and rail. The terminal’s on-dock rail operations maximizes efficiency and provides a favorable environmental impact when compared with terminals with larger concentrations of truck traffic and off-dock rail facilities.”

At the port, Canadian National Railway offers its high capacity double stack rail network to move the freight to such Midwest and Eastern destinations as Chicago, Memphis, Toronto and Montreal. “The Port of Prince Rupert is the closest port to Asia by up to 58 hours’ sailing time, compared to other west coast port in North America,” notes Jim Vena, senior vice president of CN’s Western Region. “CN will transport containers between the port and the principal centers of the US Midwest, South and Central Canada via its network spanning Canada and Mid-America.”

The port is forecasting annual container movement of at least 4 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) by 2015. For now, Phase 1 of the Prince Rupert container terminal project will provide an annual container handling capacity of 500,000 TEUs, which will be increased during Phase 2 to 2 million TEUs.

The CKYH ship Alliance (Hanjin, Coscon, K-Line and Yangming) has added Prince Rupert to the South loop section of its Pacific North West butterfly service. The service will deploy nine 5,500 TEU vessels in a rotation that includes Hong Kong-Yantian-Yokohama-Prince Rupert-Vancouver-Seattle-Yokohama-Shanghai-Busan-Seattle-Portland-Vancouver-Kwangyang-Hong Kong.