(Globe and Mail)
The world's ports are
bursting at the seams because of booming Asian trade, spurring plans for massive expansion, and Canada's West Coast stands to benefit.
Containers filled with consumer goods from China are pouring
into North America, putting pressure on West Coast ports from Vancouver to Mexico, said the report released yesterday by UBS Securities LLC.
Business is so brisk along North America's West Coast that
ports spend much of their energy just keeping up with the wave of containers arriving,..
While traffic jams have hit all major ports, the Los Angeles-Long Beach region has been especially congested,
forcing Asian exporters to look elsewhere. At one point last year, more than 90 ships off Los Angeles were kept waiting for a berth.
Some container shippers in Asia have opted to go through the Panama
Canal to deliver goods to East Coast terminals, "but ultimately, there is no escaping West Coast ports."
That means that Vancouver and Prince Rupert in British Columbia are well positioned
to benefit. "We expect alternative ports, particularly northern ports, to increasingly become first ports of call," the UBS report said.
New projects on the horizon include the Port of
Prince Rupert's construction of a container terminal, to be completed by early 2007, and a multiyear expansion at Lazaro Cardinas in Mexico..
Compared with last year's bottlenecks, this year's flow of
goods should be smoother than last year's, as terminal operators, trucking firms and railways have added thousands of workers and expanded infrastructure, the study noted. |
