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Traffic through the Port of Prince Rupert down 12 per cent so far this year

All of the Prince Rupert Port Authority's terminals saw a decline in the amount of product they handled in February.

All of the Prince Rupert Port Authority's terminals saw a decline in the amount of product they handled in February, with the port seeing an overall decline of more than 16 per cent year-over-year.

Fairview Terminal saw decreases across the board in February. At the end of last month, 35,725.5 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) of cargo were moved, which is nearly 25 per cent less than February of 2013 when 47,627.25 TEUs went through the operation. So far this year there as been a 14.7 per cent decline in the total number of TEUs moving through Fairview, with 84,917.25 TEUs being moved through Fairview by the end of February, and 99,550.75 in 2013.

Imports were down by more than 15 per cent when comparing this February to last, with 22,727 TEUs coming through Fairview Terminal last month. So far in 2014, there has been a 6.5 per cent drop in imports.

Exports saw an even steeper decline of 37.5 per cent, with 12,998.5 TEUs coming through the terminal last month in contrast to 20,806.5 TEUs in February of 2013. When comparing the total number of TEUs exported through Fairview year to date, it was a decline of slightly over 25 per cent from 2013.

There was a 17 per cent decrease in the number of loaded TEUs going through Fairview Terminal, with 9,731 TEUs being moved last month compared to 11,745.75 in February of 2013. Despite the decrease, 2014's year to date total is up 11 per cent.   quantity of empty TEUs leaving Prince Rupert was down significantly at nearly 64 per cent last month and is down by 60 per cent to date.

However it was Harbour Terminal that saw the largest decrease last month, with the operation seeing a 42 per cent decline in the tonnes handled month over month. Last month 19,092 tonnes were handled at Harbour Terminal, down from 33,062 last February. Despite that, the operation has seen a close to 140 per cent increase in the tonnes handled year over year, with 79,237 tonnes being moved so far in 2014 compared to 33,062 tonnes moved by the end of February in 2013.

Ridley Terminal had 752,123 tonnes go through it in February, which is down 14 per cent month over month as 878,782 tonnes were moved through the operation last February. The year to date amount is also down 18.8 per cent, with 1,369,154 tonnes going through Ridley Terminal so far this year, compared to 1,686,427 last year.

Prince Rupert Grain saw the smallest decrease in tonnage moved at just under 10 per cent, with 420,285 tonnes going through the operation last month in contrast to 466,712.74 tonnes in February of 2013. When comparing the operation's tonnage amount at this time last year, there has been a 7.85 per cent decrease, as 857,277.5 tonnes have been through PRG so far this year in contrast to nearly 930,293 tonnes at this time last year.

All together 1,548,765 tonnes went through all of the Prince Rupert Port Authority's operations last month, down 16.65 per cent from February of 2013 when 1,858,227 tonnes were handled. By the end of February 2013, port operations had moved 3,648,687.9 which is nearly 12 per cent less than this year's year to date amount of 3,211,084.9 tonnes.