When it comes to visual evidence of an oddball economy look no further than the number of ships anchored in Vancouver’s harbour.
Prior to the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the floods and wildfire catastrophes that hammered B.C. in 2021, there would be few freighters, especially container cargo ships, forced to wait at anchor for berthing space in the Port of Vancouver.
Aside from those natural disasters, contributors to the oddball economy that today is destabilizing trade and business at home and abroad include inflation spikes, labour shortages, workplace disruptions, social media information distortions and Russian military aggression.
The moderately good news for Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway is that the historic cargo congestion at major North American port complexes is beginning to ease as consumer market demand returns to a more traditional balance of goods and services.
For example, the Port of Vancouver handled 11 per cent less cargo in 2022’s first half than it did in the same period a year earlier, as the growth in global container port throughput dropped from around eight per cent in 2021’s second quarter to just under one per cent in 2022’s second quarter.
Those numbers are allowing major ports in B.C. and elsewhere along North America’s West Coast to remove some logistic logjams. But, as the Port of Vancouver’s ships at anchor illustrate, many logjams remain.
More concerning for the business buoyancy of Canada’s Asia-Pacific Gateway is its readiness to handle cargo demands in the face of unforeseen crises that might affect it and competing North American ports.
For example, if a labour dispute were to shut down rail or port operations anywhere along the U.S. West Coast, shippers would logically look north to B.C. as an alternative. But not if the province and the rest of Canada have neither the capacity nor the ability to handle an unexpected cargo windfall.
At present neither do, and that needs to be addressed today.
