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The Port of Vancouver and Fraser Port experienced record or near-record years in 2000 and expect another successful odyssey in 2001. The other 18 active deep-sea British Columbia ports, from Victoria in the south to Stewart on the Alaska border, expect a more or less stable year. Domestically, Washington Marine Group and Rivtow continue to dominate the tug and barge trade. Big self-loading, self-dumping log barges continue their role as the giants of the B.C. tug and barge industry, hauling logs from the Queen Charlotte Islands, along the B.C. coast and as far afield as Alaska's Kenai peninsula to sawmills on the south coast; while log booms and chip barges signal the dominant role of the forest products industry in the coastal trades.
The ports are a mix of six independent port authorities and a host of mill ports and docks, such as Chemainus, Port Alice, Port Mellon and Kitimat with a handful of public terminals at Squamish, Cowichan Bay and Victoria; plus hundreds of ramps, barge slips, beaches and anchorages for the millions of tons of domestic cargo moving along the coast.
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The Port of Vancouver continued its strong overall performance. The Vancouver Port Authority will finalize its 2000 tonnage figures in mid- February, but 2000 was likely a record year - preliminary indicators show there was an increase over 1999's 72 million metric tons.
Container traffic grew seven to eight percent over 1999's 1.07 million TEUs. VPA spokeswoman Linda Morris said the final figure will be about 1.2 million TEUs including more than 1 million TEUs of loaded boxes. Container traffic now represents more than 13 percent of the port's immense tonnage.
For 2001, Kevin Little, vice president of business development, said, "We are looking at generally a good year." He said the port was watching the potential slowdown in the United States closely, but, "The U.S. is not a big part of our business."
All of Vancouver's three major container terminals either completed expansion programs in 2000 or will add space and capacity in 2001 as container traffic continues along a high-growth path that has seen throughput double over the past five years.
At Deltaport, operated by TSI- Terminal Systems Inc., the first two phases of a three-phase expansion added 25 acres of storage space by last November. Work on the third phase of the expansion will begin in the spring and be completed before the end of 2001. With Phase 3, the highly-automated terminal will boast 160 acres of high- density container terminal space. An important element of Phase 3 is doubling of the on-dock intermodal yard. Four new 3,500-foot tracks are being added, which will be served by more of Deltaport's unique wide-span rail-mounted gantry cranes.
China Shipping shifted its weekly service to Deltaport in November. In January, the company's new CSCL Shanghai called on Deltaport. At 5,500 TEU, the ship is the largest container vessel to call Vancouver. China Shipping's building program will soon replace all of the current vessels with 5,500 TEU ships.
The line recently placed an order for a series of 9,800 TEU behemoths which will enter service beginning in 2003. Barry Sime, terminal manager at Deltaport said, "So far, we have few details of the new ships." However, he expects few problems handling the new giants, noting, "Our two new cranes can handle 20-wide loads and the booms on the other four can be extended if needed." The terminal already has a depth alongside of 50 feet so he anticipates no berthing problems.
China Shipping joins the Grand Alliance, the New World Alliance, and Evergreen at Deltaport.
At Vanterm, also operated by TSI, work has just commenced on a 190-foot berth extension. The expansion will close the terminal's Berth 7, but is required due to the increasing length of container ships calling at the terminal. The terminal will also gain a few additional acres of storage space. Vanterm is home to COSCO, a Grand Alliance loop, "K" Line and the AMPAC consortium.
BCR Marine's Centerm grew by 10 acres through filling in the bight between it and Ballantyne Pier, quickly filling the additional space as the terminal's busy container traffic continues to grow. Centerm is home to the container services of Hanjin, Zim and Westwood as well as a regular terminal call for a number of forest product carriers.
The port has created a new Container Development Group lead by Pat McLaughlin and including Gordon Chou. The VPA's Little said the group's goal is "To find one million TEUs of new capacity, find the best locations and find the partners willing to work with us." Their target is to have the new capacity begin coming on stream within the next five years. This is in addition to current expansion programs at the container terminals. Little stressed that the group isto all options and locations.
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