Multipurpose Port Metro Vancouver terminal
also proves box productivity
By MARK WILSON
September 21, 2009
A happy prospect for Fraser Surrey Docks LP, which is a specialist in handling project cargoes, is that future wind farms in British Columbia are likely to be offshore or close to tidewater.
Then there are the many coastal sites where run-of-the-river hydro projects (ones not involving dams and reservoirs) are proposed.
Both forms of green energy promise potential business because components can be received by sea at FSD’s river terminal – the largest multipurpose cargo facility on the west coast of the Americas – and delivered by barge.
A possible setback to green power development on the Pacific is a B.C. Utilities Commission rejection of regulated B.C. Hydro’s plans to buy such power from private suppliers on the grounds that the utility’s energy forecasts are flawed. But both Hydro and the provincial government are expected to find a way around the roadblock.
FSD has and will continue to handle project cargoes moving inland, but as the terminal’s marketing co-coordinator Brady Erno ruefully notes, loading-gauge restrictions on railways threading through the Western Mountains pose limitations.
When in contention for heavyweight shipments for power plant or oil industry projects east of the Rockies, FSD can be pitted against routings that use the Great Lakes and enjoy the more generous clearances of railways west of the lake head. Clearance problems do not arise with transshipment to barge for moves to coastal destinations.
This year, FSD got a taste of what green energy projects on the Pacific Coast may bring.
Its 56-hectare terminal received equipment from Europe for a run-of-the-river power development on Toba Inlet, 100 crow-flight miles north of Vancouver. Completion of the 196-megawatt project by Plutonic Power Corp. is expected in 2010. The first of eight loads for the Toba Inlet development arrived in the Fraser River from Vlissingen in the Netherlands aboard Grieg Star Shipping’s Star Java on May 11.
Two heavy-lifts, one of 149 tonnes and the second of 85 tonnes, were performed using a barge-mounted crane belonging to Amix Heavy Lift Ltd. of New Westminster (see story in this issue on Westshore Terminals for more on Amix).
North Arm Transportation Ltd., using its tug North Arm Wrestler and a 70.6-metre barge chartered from J. & R. Marine Leasing Ltd., of Chemainus, on Vancouver Island, transported power equipment to Toba Inlet.
North Arm and Amix were again involved in a second heavy-lift and transfer operation for Plutonic when the Star Dieppe delivered a shipment from Europe to FSD in late June.
North Arm had earlier moved some 150 barge-loads of equipment and materials to the power project site on behalf of contractor Peter Kiewit & Sons.
In another demonstration of its project cargo capabilities, FSD has handled the giant blades and tower sections for a wind turbine erected by Grouse Mountain Resorts Ltd. atop its 1,250-metre namesake peak on Vancouver’s north shore.
The three 37-metre blades for the turbine, each weighing 5.4 tonnes, were shipped from Denmark to FSD, along with special lifting equipment. The blades then moved by barge to an arm of Vancouver’s inner harbour to be airlifted to Grouse Mountain by an Erickson S-64E air-crane.
Bill Wehnert, FSD’s vice-president of sales and marketing, said the terminal operator has been ramping up its marketing effort to win more project cargo business.
“We are served by three Class 1 railways and we have completed the black-topping of all of our large staging areas to receive heavy loads,” he said. “The space we can devote to project cargoes gives everyone lots of flexibility in planning the onward movement of equipment or plant by water or rail.”
FSD has four container cranes and competes for box traffic against terminals on Vancouver’s inner harbour or at Roberts Bank, a satellite port site projecting by means of a causeway into deep water.
To compete against rivals that are not handicapped by water depth or careful observance of tidal states on the lower reaches of a river, FSD has emphasized efficiency.
Restricted as it is to handling ships that have a draft not exceeding 11.5 metres and a length overall no greater than 270 metres, FSD has captured 100 per cent of the business of this size of vessel calling at Port Metro Vancouver.
FSD demonstrated its efficiency in June when it slightly bettered a record set in May when crane operators achieved an average of 31.2 container moves per hour (MPH) while serving 13 ship arrivals. One vessel was turned around smartly after crane operators managed 38.3 MPH. The May success followed a creditable average performance of 29.23 MPH in April.
Chris Badger, Port Metro Vancouver’s chief operating officer, said the FSD performance is set against overall crane productivity for the port which, for a period of months, slumped to between 20 and 22 MPH from an average of 25 to 26 MPH, though it has since recovered.
Capt. Badger said Vancouver may suffer in comparison with some ports because it receives ships making multiple calls on the West Coast, delivering or receiving part loads at each one. This creates complexity in stowing and complicates the task of crane operators. By contrast, Montreal, for example, is an end destination or terminus port.
However, Capt. Badger expects Port Metro Vancouver’s overall performance to improve, and FSD may be a goad to achieving this productivity gain.
“Fraser Surrey Docks is a river terminal and in order to maintain competitiveness has to focus time and energy on achieving a very efficient level of service,” he said. “But our experience is that when one terminal boosts its number of moves per hour, the other terminals boost theirs.”
FSD has been owned since 2007 by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, a New York subsidiary of Australia’s Macquarie Bank.