After months of decline, Fairview Terminal saw a significant jump in traffic last month.
The total tonnage handled by the terminal in November increased 16.69 per cent year-over-year, from 43,532 TEUs in 2012 to 50,798 TEUs in 2013, with imports climbing from 25,286 TEUs last year to 28,940 TEUs this year, an increase of 14.45 per cent. While export traffic saw the largest increase, jumping 19.79 per cent to sit at 21,857 TEUs, that number is skewed by the 30 per cent drop empty container being shipped out. The number of loaded TEUs leaving Prince Rupert increased from 9,862 TEUs last November to 16,024 TEUs this November — a difference of 62.49 per cent.
Despite the increase, total traffic through Fairview Terminal remains below that of 2012 through 11 months. So far this year the terminal has handled 464,445.5 TEUs compared to 515,923.9 TEUs last year, a drop of 3.78 per cent. Import traffic has fallen 3.28 per cent from 290,566.15 to 281,033 and exports are down 4.41 per cent despite a 23.82 per cent increase in loaded container exports.
While the numbers for Fairview Terminal were strong in November, the same cannot be said for the other terminals under the Prince Rupert Port Authority umbrella.
Prince Rupert Grain was the only terminal to see a year-over-year increase, climbing 4.03 per cent from 566,010 tonnes last November to 588,806 tonnes this November. The terminal is up 12.5 per cent so far this year having moved 4.76 million tonnes compared to 4.24 million tonnes.
Ridley Terminals saw a 70 per cent drop in year-over-year traffic, experiencing drops in every type of coal and moving 476,086 tonnes of product compared to 1.61 million tonnes last November. Despite the drop, RTI remains on track to beat last year's number and is up 3.38 per cent at 10.99 million tonnes compared to 10.64 million tonnes.
There were no logs moved through the harbour compared to 58,332 tonnes last November, and 516 tonnes of fabrications kept the harbour traffic from being zeroes across the board. The harbour is also up through 11 months of the year, moving 356,076 tonnes in 2013 compared to 315,681 tonnes in 2012.
For the month of November, the total tonnage moving through the port of Prince Rupert dropped 41. per cent compared to last November, but the Prince Rupert Port Authority remains on track to set another tonnage record this year. So far 21.09 million tonnes of goods have moved through Prince Rupert compared to 20,35 million tonnes last year, an increase of 3.62 per cent.
Of note, November marked the first time wood pellets from Westview Terminal showed on the monthly traffic stats. The first shipment saw 1,107 tonnes of pellets loaded onto the Star Manx last week.