The month of August saw marked increases in cargo at the Port of Prince Rupert’s Westview Wood Pellet Terminal and incoming CN Rail cargo, but saw a decrease at the Fairview Container Terminal, Prince Rupert Grain Terminal and Ridley Coal Terminal.
CN Rail had a 66 per cent increase in cargo, as 7,020 tonnes moved through the port, compared to August 2015’s 2,367. Overall, 2016 has been a busy year for the trains, as 44,398 tonnes have been transferred year to date (YTD) over 2015’s 35,291.
Westview Wood Pellet Terminal continues to see growth as well, handling 108,675 tonnes in August, a 52 per cent rise over last year’s 51,114 tonnes. In 2016, the terminal has handled 634,062 tonnes, compared to 464,575 tonnes by this time last year.
The Harbour and Northland Cruise Terminal also saw increases, as each handled 57,521 tonnes and 1,365 tonnes of cargo respectively. At the end of July, Northland had seen a 54.2 per cent increase in cruise passengers, welcoming 5,412 visitors YTD compared to 1,935 at the same time last year.
The Alaska Marine Highway Terminal, Fairview Container Terminal, Prince Rupert Grain Terminal and Ridley Coal Terminal all saw decreases in cargo in August.
One hundred-fifty-nine tonnes was handled by the Alaska terminal in August 2016, compared to 170 last year, while Fairview experienced a 15.5 per cent decrease in traffic, handling 637,732 tonnes last month. Overall. Fairview is lagging behind last year’s numbers by 194,478 tonnes YTD.
The grain terminal handled 312,817 tonnes last month, a 29.3 per cent decrease from August 2015 and is leading last year’s YTD numbers by 11,434 tonnes.
Ridley Coal Terminal handled 214,771 tonnes last month, a 13.3 per cent decrease over August 2015. Overall, Ridley has handled 2,199,482 tonnes of coal YTD, a 26.7 per cent decrease from 2015 YTD.
Domestic passenger/vehicle ferry numbers went up, with 14,711 people moving through Prince Rupert last month, a 3.4 per cent increase from last year, while foreign passenger/vehicle ferry numbers were down in August 2016 from a year ago, seeing 2,594 passengers move through Prince Rupert, a 3.8 per cent decrease. Both domestic and foreign passenger numbers are up over last year YTD, with 50,384 bodies moving through the domestic ferry terminal and 12,904 passengers going through the foreign terminal YTD.