Analysts see more light on 2017’s global shipping horizon. That’s encouraging for international container carriers, which collectively suffered a disastrous year in 2016. It could also be good news for Vancouver and Prince Rupert, whose profiles continue to rise in port rankings.
But that light is largely brighter by virtue of its comparison with the darkness that pervaded global container shipping in 2016.
Offshore challenges for B.C. ports include the potential accelerated migration of transpacific shipping through the expanded Panama Canal to ports along the U.S. Gulf Coast and the eastern seaboard and a wave of consolidation among global carrier lines that has eliminated seven of the top 20 container lines. The resulting alliances will reduce choice for importers, exporters and freight forwarders. Consolidation will also reduce the number and frequency of container ships calling at chosen ports.
Onshore challenges for the Port of Vancouver include enforcement of pay rates and other issues involving container truckers, trucking companies and the port that the joint action plan that ended the 2014 container truckers strike should have resolved.
The good news for B.C.’s major container ports is the high regard in which both are held internationally.
Prince Rupert is one of North America’s fastest-growing container ports, and Vancouver is now in the global maritime centre conversation. Its strategic location between the world’s two largest economies and its appealing marine industry tax incentives, attractive living conditions and efficient rail connections are raising its appeal internationally.
Investment in container terminal infrastructure continues to expand the port’s ability to handle more cargo. A recently completed $280 million project at GCT Canada’s Deltaport terminal has increased the terminal’s rail capacity by 50%, and Hapag-Lloyd’s Antwerpen Express became the largest container ship to call at a Canadian port when it docked at GCT Deltaport on May 5.
But Vancouver and the rest of the province remain woefully short in maritime banking, insurance, law and other expertise vital to building an international marine industry hub.
Government and industry need to work harder to educate the public on the marine sector’s economic importance and to shore up aforementioned shortcomings to ensure that B.C.’s ports can take advantage of transpacific trade opportunities and overcome the challenges in a notoriously competitive and volatile global sector.
