COSCO to be first line to call at new Prince Rupert container terminal

COSCO to be first line to call at new Prince Rupert container terminal China’s COSCO Container Lines will be the first shipping line to move cargo from Asia to the new Port of Prince Rupert container terminal on Canada’s West Coast in the fourth quarter.
   To support the move, COSCO Container Lines Americas Inc. has signed a contract with the Canadian National Railway Co. to move cargo from the new terminal over the railroad’s North American network.
   Maher Terminals is converting the port’s Fairview Terminal into a container transfer facility that will have an annual capacity of 500,000 TEUs after first phase development, part of a broader plan to build a facility capable of handling 2 million TEUs per year.
   “Our partnership with COSCO, and Prince Rupert container terminal operator Maher Terminals of Canada Corp., is clear recognition of the competitive advantages of the new port facility,” said James M. Foote, CN’s executive vice-president, sales and marketing.
   “The Rupert-CN-Maher combination will inject meaningful port-rail-terminal capacity into the global supply chain, and will offer shippers the fastest, most efficient and most cost-effective routing for Asian traffic destined to and from the interior of North America,” he said.