From: http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=30218ea1-8002-4bba-a31b-f92a061fec0f
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Halifax Port to be 'back door to Asia'

Jason Kirby
Financial Post

Friday, July 21, 2006

VANCOUVER - The Port of Halifax could capture a greater share of North America's trade with Asia as the Atlantic region markets itself as an alternative to British Columbia's congested ports.

"There is potential for the whole region to act as a gateway for the Asian traffic to filter through Halifax to the United States," said Brian Lee Crowley of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a think-tank based in Halifax.

"Retailers are looking to diversify their risk against congestion at the West Coast ports."

In a new report, the Vancouver-based Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada said Halifax is "set to become Canada's back door to Asia."

It noted that in the face of congestion in B.C., the Port of Halifax has the infrastructure and vacant industrial land to accommodate more container traffic.

The APFC said Canadian retailers such as Sears Canada, Sony and Reitmans have already begun importing goods from Southeast Asia and India through Halifax. Other retailers such as Canadian Tire are following suit.

"The reality is today very little product for Canadian Tire goes through the Port of Halifax, but in the future it will play an increasing roll for us," said Scott Bonikowsky, a spokesman for the Toronto-based company.

Two weeks ago, the retailer announced plans to build a distribution centre in Coteau du Lac, outside of Montreal, by 2009, which will be serviced via Halifax. Starting this year, up to 5% of its imports will flow through the port.

The company sources 35% of its merchandise from offshore and has $9-billion in sales.

Mr. Bonikowsky insisted Canadian Tire was not greatly affected by last year's six-week shutdown at the Port of Vancouver, which saw containers pile up after truckers refused to haul them away. Still, he said, "it's very important that we see a productive and effective port in Vancouver."

The Port of Vancouver remains the largest in Canada. Yesterday, the port announced its activity for the first half of the year. It moved 1.04 million TEUs, or twenty-equivalent units, the measure for container traffic. That was up 21% from the same period in 2005 but was largely the result of cargo being redirected from the Fraser River Port Authority.

Vancouver can handle 1.77 million TEUs, with plans to expand that to four million by 2012. In addition, a new port at Prince Rupert in Northern B.C. will add another 500,000 TEUs when it is completed in the spring.

But B.C.'s ports are already operating near capacity.

"The West Coast ports here are facing a huge constraint," said Werner Knittel, vice-president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters' B.C. division.

The Port of Halifax, meanwhile, has a capacity for one million TEUs, yet handled just 550,000 TEUs last year. The region is looking at building an inland terminal, boosting Halifax's capacity to 1.4 million TEUs.

CN Rail, meanwhile, has said it is prepared to put 20% more railcars into service between Halifax and Montreal.

While Mr. Knittel said the trade route between B.C. and Asia would be "the St. Lawrence Seaway of the 21st century," he noted retailers are turning to Halifax for cargo that is not time-sensitive.

At the same time, shippers are replacing their fleets with larger vessels. So far, Halifax is the only port deep enough to handle them. The port in New York is spending roughly US$2-billion to blast away underwater rock so it can accommodate the larger ships.

"This all puts Halifax in a uniquely strategic position that it's never been in before," Mr. Crowley said.

The APFC said Halifax is also poised to be the port of choice for trade with India, which is seeking to double its exports. There are seven shipping lines linking India and Halifax through the Suez Canal, it said, noting, "This is almost exclusively an East Coast opportunity due to proximity and convenience."

port capacity maxed at vancouver is also having prince rupert developed as a container port. The reasons sited in the article are why private interests from halifax (with some highway and rail infrastructure money from the province of nova scotia) the strait of canso is going to be developed into a second container facility for nova scotia. The town of melford and the county of guyborough recently re zoned 14,000 acres for the container terminal and industrial park. That ammount of land is huge for a container terminal in canada. That certainly would rival long beach and san pedro in the los angeles basin if it was all container terminal. I have been to those ports personally and they a mammouth even compared to many us ports.

Melford was to be the site of the john shahine oil refinery on the east coast of canada. That refinery ended up at come by chance newfoundland and after moth balling for decades the refinery was modernized and used for the hiberia off shore oil project.

jim jones

port capacity maxed at vancouver is also having prince rupert developed as a container port. The reasons sited in the article are why private interests from halifax (with some highway and rail infrastructure money from the province of nova scotia) the strait of canso is going to be developed into a second container facility for nova scotia. The town of melford and the county of guyborough recently re zoned 14,000 acres for the container terminal and industrial park. That ammount of land is huge for a container terminal in canada. That certainly would rival long beach and san pedro in the los angeles basin if it was all container terminal. I have been to those ports personally and they a mammouth even compared to many us ports.

If they do build a build a massive container facility in Guysborough it would be a major boom for the rural economy in that area and the rest of Northern N.S. Halifax would be the obvious choice, but there is no room to build a large terminal with the existing rail links.

I've read the article (obviously), but don't know how that would actually work.

Here is another article from late last year about Halifax's growing importance :
http://skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=6592415&postcount=40

If they do build a build a massive container facility in Guysborough it would be a major boom for the rural economy in that area and the rest of Northern N.S. Halifax would be the obvious choice, but there is no room to build a large terminal with the existing rail links.

The thing is for halifax is a guysborough facility comes to reality is not some to be feared at all. The developers have stated that they would not be in competition with halifax.
The rail is there to melford with the exception of 10 miles from the main short line. If needed a guysborough facility could also have the abandoned roadbed from new glasgow to amherst (bi-passing the truro to amherst railine) relaying the track could be easier then increasing capacity between halifax to amherst. on parts of the truro to amherst line you have some major excavation of hard rock to double lane the line. New Glasgow to Amherst you by pass that if you relay the track. Who knows container cars could be sent out of halifax to new glasgow if the old line was restored. There is enough siding and roadbed that could be restored to make it more feasealbe in northern nova scotia. With Melford You also do something for the province besides develope northern north scotia. You insure delivery for the customers if we ever had labour problems in halifax with the marine unions. The same could be the opposite with melford to halifax. Halifax does not have the labour issues of Vancouver so we are really looking at an alternative to the vancouver bottle neck. If you have two ice free harbours in nova scotia with container ternimals with minimum drafts way beyond the post panamax ships you are looking at nova scotia getting the job done no matter what. The only thing I could see is if you have both ports in labour disputes and with guysborough most people are not going to go on strike because of the importance that facility would be to the community for 500 jobs.

With Halifax it is the land prices and availability that would hinder a third terminal. With capacity at half right now both terminals have room for more business. With Melford you have a clean slate to do what ever is wanted at cheap prices for land.
It is all very positive for the entire province.

Jim jones

HFX port to Asia? Is that much farther than Vancouver? Is distance not a big factor in ocean shipping? I know in air transport, it is. Anyone?

India is about the same distance from Halifax as it is from Vancouver. China is closer to Vancouver, but many west coast ports are clogged.

India is about the same distance from Halifax as it is from Vancouver. China is closer to Vancouver, but many west coast ports are clogged.

Well canadian west coast ports are the ones really clogged. I can see long beach and san pedro being further developed and you will also see places like oakland and seattle increase the capacity. Prince Rupert is increasing capacity as well. It is really driven by trade with wal mart in long beachs case.
I would not be surprized if santa barbara and san diego get in on the act as well.
When I ported at the military docks near santa barbara there were huge yards of imported automobiles and there was a ton of vacant land for developement.
In the meanwhile it will be either have the ship or container wait at the terminal or have the ship moving to a place with shorter wait times to get product onto trains or trucks. The distance difference is not as much of a factor if you are saving land transport wait times for the customer. With wal mart it is especially important.
If a product transits the pacific in 5 days from asia but is on the dock for 10 days then you probably have the same amount of time as a china to halifax trip. I am not saying those are the times just a seneiro that wait times on the west coast could equal or even exceed the long way around.
With a good portion of the united states retail in the midwest and eastern sea board you can cut down on the train or trucking time and costs compared to shipping cross country from the west coast of north america.
It may be as simple as west coast shipments, east coast shipments for the chinesse to get product to market the fastest way. You are even seeing panama developing huge container facilities for post panamax shipping on both ends of the panama canal. a ship off loads on the pacific side the containers cross panama via trains . another ship loads on the atlantic side . The container pier developement in panama is being funded completely by chinesse government money. From panama to houston, new orleans, mobile alabama and miami is a very short time and then you are on the rail and road system in the united states.
There are going to be very inovative ways that would not be thought of years ago to get product to market from china. Time on the oceans will not be as important as trying to reduce the time from the north american port to the retailer.

jim jones