By MARK WILSON
August 25, 2009
Container traffic at the Port of Prince Rupert’s Fairview Terminal recovered somewhat in the second quarter after a weak start to the year, increasing to 56,573 TEUs from 41,043 TEUS in the opening three months. But volume has yet to match the 79,106 TEUs handled in the closing three months of 2008, which had the best quarterly performance since the terminal opened in November 2007.
The second-quarter rally in containers was matched in other commodities, overcoming a first-quarter swoon to put overall cargo for the first half of the year at 5.42 million tonnes, almost equal the 5.44 million tonnes posted in the corresponding period in 2008.
Grain traffic rose in the second quarter, pushing the half-year throughput at the northern British Columbia port’s terminal elevator – Prince Rupert Grain – to 2.9 million tonnes. Wheat shipments accounted for nearly all the activity following a good crop in 2008, when Western Canadian farmers harvested 36.7 million tonnes, compared to a five-year average of 33.9 million tonnes.
PRG president Jeff Burghardt has cautioned that grain shipments may falter, due to an indifferent harvest this fall. “There is great concern about the size and quality of this year’s overall crop due to the lack of adequate moisture throughout the growing season,” he said. “There is strong potential for throughput levels to be lower this coming fall compared to levels that Prince Rupert Grain has attained in recent years.”
Prince Rupert’s bulk products facility – Ridley Terminals Inc. – reported a slight improvement in tonnage in the second quarter over the preceding three months but the total volume handled in the first half of the year, at 1.41 million tonnes, was still down 48.6 per cent compared to the 2.74 million tonnes loaded in the first half of 2008. Metallurgical coal was off by 59.1 per cent, from 2.52 million tonnes to 1.03 million tonnes. The decrease was attributable to the current economic downturn, which has seen cutbacks in steel production by up to 50 per cent below 2008 levels. However, RTI saw increases in its other cargo, including: thermal coal, up 146.6 per cent to 173,628 tonnes; petroleum coke, up 38.4 per cent to 128,058 tonnes; and wood pellets, up 36.3 percent to 75,500 tonnes.
The planned quadrupling of capacity at Fairview Terminal to two million TEUs a year has moved a step forward with the completion on June 26 of a 30-day comment period on the proposed scope of an environmental assessment review of the project.
The public and First Nations were invited to open houses and other meetings to offer their comments during the 30-day period.