Port Rupert completes container expansion

The Port of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada, celebrated the completion of the two-year "Phase 2 North" expansion of DP World's Fairview Container Terminal with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The expansion expands the terminal’s annual throughput capacity from 850,000 to 1.35 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), and, the port said in a release, enables it to accommodate the largest container vessels in the world.

The container terminal was converted from a breakbulk facility and opened in 2007 at the western terminus of Canadian National’s three-coast transcontinental network and provided weekly service from China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co. (Cosco)

CN said the partnership between the port, Fairview terminal and the governments of Canada and British Columbia created a congestion-free gateway to expand markets across Canada and the United States. Today, a number of major steamship companies call on the port and more than 15 trains a week depart from Rupert, which accounts for about 20% of CN’s intermodal business.

“The city of Prince Rupert was built for Canadian trade and the container terminal unlocked so much of the port’s untapped potential,” said Luc Jobin, president and chief executive of CN. “As one of the fastest growing ports in North America, the Port of Prince Rupert holds a premier place on the global trade map. The last decade of supply chain collaboration between the port, terminal operators, CN and other partners has become the model for how to establish and grow a trade corridor.”

Dubai-based DP World’s expansion of the Fairview terminal has added 500,000 TEUs to the facility. CN, working with its supply chain partners, is committed to selling 80% of the new capacity within three years.