Buoyed by a rising tide of trans-Pacific cargo and shipper concerns over potential longshore labour disruptions at West Coast ports in the United States, container traffic and other cargo shipped through Port Metro Vancouver continues to rebound from the 28-day truckers’ strike earlier this year.
But a couple of red flags were also raised in PMV’s mid-year numbers released today.
According to those numbers, the port’s overall tonnage grew 3.6% to more than 69 million tonnes in 2014’s first six months compared with the same period last year.
Container traffic volumes were up 4.6%.
Foreign (54.6 million tonnes) and domestic (14.5 million tonnes) cargo were up 3.5% and 3.8%, respectively, compared with 2013’s first six months.
Peter Xotta, PMV’s vice-president of operations and planning, said the biggest growth in resource shipments such as coal and forest products was to China, South Korea and Japan.
He said the increase in cargo volumes shipped through the port shows that international demand for Canadian commodities continues to grow and that the investments the port and government are making in infrastructure improvements are positioning PMV to serve that demand.
“It’s a stable and growing opportunity for us from a trade perspective.”
The mid-year stats, however, revealed a few flies in the PMV ointment.
For example, the percentage of empty outbound container TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) was up 47%. The top two commodities shipped in containers outbound from the port to Asia and elsewhere are agriculture and forest products.
Earlier this year, Ian May, Western Canadian Shippers’ Coalition (WCSC) Chairman, told Business in Vancouver that the cost increases from the implementation of the 15-point joint action plan that ended the port truckers strike would price containers out of the market for his members, who use containers primarily to export wood products to Asia. (“Sea change is coming in international container trade” – BIV issue 1281; May 20-26.)
He said coalition members have since been exploring other shipping options, including using Prince Rupert, rail, break bulk and barges.
He estimated that in the short term approximately 20% of the export containers WCSC members moved by trucks will be shipped via alternative methods.
Xotta conceded that the truckers “issue” was likely a factor in shippers pursuing different options for moving their products.
“Shippers are going to take whatever opportunities are available to them to get their product to market … so you are probably seeing good logistics people making decision to protect their interests.”
Elsewhere, shipments of automobiles through the port dropped 1.2% to 198,788 in 2014’s first six months from 201,231 during the same period in 2013.
Xotta said the decrease reflected an auto manufacturers’ shift to more production in North America and Mexico, which “could have an impact of at least flattening out what we do in Vancouver, if not declining.”
Shipments of fertilizer through the port, led by a 24% drop in sulphur, were also down.
Biggest percentage increase in products shipped through the port in 2014’s first six months: tobacco and related products, up 543% compared with January to June 2013.
