After just over five years of operations, Fairview Terminal in Prince Rupert has surpassed its original design capacity.
The terminal began operations in October, 2007 with a capacity of 500,000 TEUs, and on Nov. 18 the COSCO Vancouver moved the 500,000th container of 2012. So far the terminal has handled 515,9254 TEUs in the first 11 months of the year.
By comparison, in the first full year of operation in 2008 the terminal moved 182,523 TEUs. That growth is something everyone involved should be proud of, said Prince Rupert Port Authority president and CEO Don Krusel.
“The year-over-year growth we’ve experienced has made the Port of Prince Rupert the fastest growing container terminal in North America and one of the fastest in the world. Reaching and surpassing 500,000 TEUs is a testament to the strength of the partnerships we created with government, our port stakeholders, the public, and the labour community,” he said.
“This project leveraged infrastructure investments by the federal and provincial governments into the Asia-Pacific Gateway. It has made a profound impact on Prince Rupert and communities across Canada that now benefit from a direct connection to China, Korea, and other economies of southeast Asia.”
Currently the terminal handles three weekly calls that see approximately 3,000 containers per vessel moved through the Prince Rupert.
While the terminal was initially designed to handle 500,000 TEUs, the efficiency of the workforce has made it so that Prince Rupert can handle an estimated 750,000 TEUs. In the years since Fairview Terminal opened, Local 505 of the International Lonshore and Warehouse Union has grown to 80 unionized members and over 200 casual workers. The terminal leads others in North America in terms of the number of container moves per hour and has the lowest total time containers spend moving between ship and rail.
“The Port of Prince Rupert’s tremendous growth over the past five years is a key element in the growth of Canada’s Pacific Gateway,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Mary Polak.
“Prince Rupert’s expansion is also a vital part of Canada Starts Here: the BC Jobs Plan that has created more than 45,000 new jobs since August 2011, many of them in northern B.C.”