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Prince Rupert looks towards Memphis By Alison Bate General manager Mark Schepp stood on the dock at Fairview Terminal, firing off facts about the West Coast¹s newest container terminal. The ones that stuck the most involve Memphis, a city more than 3, 000 miles away from Prince Rupert, in another country, and on a much large scale. In this wilderness outpost in northern B.C., with its salmon, bald eagles, and end-of-the-line, small-town feel, it¹s difficult to visualize the connections with Memphis. But when tonight’s container ship discharges its cargo, about 400 of the 1,000 boxes will take the long ride east and south to Memphis; about 300 boxes will go to Chicago, and the rest will head for Central Canada. It’s only when you look at the Canadian National network map that it all begins to make sense. The boxes will be transferred direct onto CN doublestack flatcars, before heading east through the Rockies to Winnipeg. Cargo destined for Chicago and Memphis will cross the border at International Falls, Minn. Finally, Memphis boxes will end up on the former Illinois Central line, now part of CN, arriving in the city 132 hours after leaving Prince Rupert. But why Memphis? As CN spokesman Mark Hallman pointed out, the city is a key distribution hub and in the geographical center of the U.S. Five Class I railroads operate there, and it can serve more metro markets overnight by road than any other U.S. city. Hallman said the Prince Rupert intermodal service has exceeded time expectations since starting two years ago, with cargo to Chicago taking an average 100 hours; Detroit, 130 hours; Memphis, 132 hours; Columbus, Ohio, 150 hours; Toronto, 102 hours; and Montreal 128 hours. Before Fairview Terminal opened for business, U.S.-bound cargo would probably have moved through Los Angeles and Long Beach. But Prince Rupert is still a blip on the horizon compared with the two Californian ports, moving a modest 122,402 TEUs (20- foot equivalent units) during the first seven months of 2009. Generally, about 60 per cent of the import cargo is U.S. bound, the remaining 40 per cent heading for other parts of Canada. Cosco is the port’s main carrier, with two weekly calls made by the CKYH Alliance lines, including Cosco and its partners, K Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin. The PNW-S loop, which started in October 2007, covers Hong Kong, Yantian, Yokohama, Prince Rupert, Vancouver, Seattle, Yokohama, Shanghai, Busan, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, Kwangyang and back to Hong Kong. A second weekly call, the CEN service, covers Dalian in North China, then Xingang, Qingdao, Shanghai, Prince Rupert, Long Beach, Oakland, and Yokohama. Export cargo is also picking up and about 30 per cent of the boxes head back to Asia fully loaded. “We’re loading 20 cans of logs a week, some aluminum, and we’ve just started shipping 400,000 lbs. of First Nations salmon,” said Schepp, general manager of Fairview, operated by Maher Terminals. Some packaged lumber is also exported. Fairview’s volumes increased by 98 per cent in the first seven months of 2009, year-on-year. However, the CEN service only began calling in mid-July 2008, so the increase is less dramatic than it sounds. Although Prince Rupert is weathering the recession better than most ports in North America, it isn’t growing as fast as stakeholders would like. As a result, Cosco has reduced the size of ships on its CEN service from the initial 7,500-TEU vessels to 5,500-TEUs. Dave Bedwell, executive vice president of Cosco Canada, said volumes on the two weekly services are about the same and are stable. “There’s now a slight increase in volumes, but we don¹t know if it will be sustained,” he said in mid-September. However, Bedwell is full of praise for the port’s productivity, noting labor is averaging 29 to 31 moves an hour, the highest on the West Coast of North America. “These guys are rocking and rolling,” he added. Maher’s Mark Schepp agreed. “Labor up here has been absolutely fantastic,” he said.	In This Issue Up Front News, Trends & Analysis New Items U.S. employment environment promotes import uncertainty Supply Chain How are you planning for the rebound? Trade compliance often has a broader scope Features Optimism characterizes inaugural Southeast Freight Conference Gateway at a glance: Northern California Ports & infrastructure Prince Rupert looks towards Memphis Canada tries to standardize port performance metrics Global players jockey over Arctic shipping routes Port Products Terminal management systems Commentary Roll up your sleeves for the next phase On the Horizon The Internet of 2020 Casualties
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Prince Rupert looks towards Memphis