Port of Prince Rupert completes Fairview terminal expansion

The Canadian port is equipped to handle the largest containerships in the world thanks to the expansion at Fairview Container Terminal, giving the terminal a second berth and three Malacca-max cranes with a horizontal reach of 25 containers.    The Port of Prince Rupert, located on Canada’s western coast in British Columbia, is now equipped to handle the largest containerships in the world thanks to the conclusion of DP World’s expansion of its Fairview Container Terminal, the port said Tuesday.
   The “Phase 2 North” expansion project included the addition of a second berth and three Malacca-max cranes with a horizontal reach of 25 containers, increasing the Fairview Container Terminal’s annual container handling capacity from 850,000 TEUs to 1.35 million TEUs.
   The Fairview Container Terminal already had four cranes with a reach of 22 containers wide that will continue to operate at the terminal, a Prince Rupert Port Authority spokesperson told American Shipper back in May. The recent expansion also involved the addition of 6,000 more feet of on-dock rail and an 11-hectare increase to the terminal’s footprint.
   Commenting on the completion of the Phase 2 North expansion project, Canadian National (CN), the only railroad with direct access to the Port of Prince Rupert, said it is committed to selling 80 percent of the terminal’s new capacity within three years.
   “Today, the world’s major steamship companies call on the port, and with more than 15 trains a week from Rupert, it accounts for about 20 percent of CN’s intermodal business,” the railroad said.
   The Fairview Container Terminal first commenced operations back in 2007 and was operated by Maher Terminal Holding Corp. of New Jersey up until 2015, when DP World Canada purchased the rights to operate the terminal.
   According to ocean carrier schedule and capacity database BlueWater Reporting’s Port Dashboard tool, the Fairview Container Terminal is currently called by three fully cellular container services connecting it to regions outside North America: the OCEAN Alliance’s transpacific CEN loop, deploying six vessels averaging 11,055 TEUs; the OCEAN Alliance’s AWE2/CPNW all-water service, deploying 16 ships averaging 8,495 TEUs; and the 2M Alliance’s transpacific TP9/Maple loop, deploying six vessels averaging 5,517 TEUs.
   In July, the port’s container volumes increased 11 percent year-over-year, while for the first seven months of 2017, container volumes surged 15 percent from the corresponding 2016 period, according to the port’s most recent monthly performance report.
   “Prince Rupert’s success has been driven by its unparalleled geographical position on the transpacific trade route, its high terminal productivity, and its consistently low dwell times that have sustained despite our significant growth in throughput over the past two years,” said Maksim Mihic, general manager of DP World Canada.