over its impressive 2009 performance. Not too far back, the Port of Tacoma handled just under
15mt and was the only major West Coast port to record a decline in throughput, albeit only 4.8%. At 11.9mt, the Port of Portland saw its throughput climb by 28% in 2010.
At the No. 2 ranked Port of Long Beach, Art Wong, Director of Communications, remains ‘cautiously optimistic’ that a second recession won’t happen in the United States. That fear of a slip back into the economic doldrums has muted forecasts of future growth, but Long Beach was racing along through April 2011 with its key container traffic up 15.3% over the same month in 2009.
The Port of Los Angeles is the biggest container handler in the U.S. and has seen sustained overall cargo growth for 15 straight months from February 2010, which is starting to rival its box volumes of 2008 before the recession hit. First quarter 2011 numbers are up 10%.
For the Port of Los Angeles Director of Media Relations, Phillip Sanfield, the 2010 highlight was definitely recovery. “We were able to bounce back from recession with 16% container cargo growth and keep all of our major capital construction projects on schedule to allow future growth and expansion,” he says.
And the Port of Long Beach surprised by recording container traffic gains of 23.6% in 2010. “We recovered our recession losses much quicker than most economists forecasted,” says Wong.
Bulk shipments make up a giant’s share of the Vancouver port’s throughput, and totalled 80.3mt in 2010, up 19% over 2009 performance.
Led by coal shipments — both steelmaking and energy coals — which were up 25% at 30.3mt, it was always going to be a good year, but there were other significant players as well. The segment for grain, specialty crops and feed was up 8% at 16.3mt, the best in years. And potash shipments jumped 143% to 5.5mt after falling to a dismal 2.3mt in 2009.
By having the best mixed hand of all West Coast ports, Port Metro Vancouver also set a record for container traffic at 2.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), up 17%. Demand for imported consumer goods continued and container exports largely to Asia climbed with forest products enjoying a rebound, along with special crops.
Port Metro President & CEO Robin Silvester says 2010 was an important and successful year for more reasons than record throughput. “We also had unprecedented infrastructure investments under way and the implementation of a unique model of collaboration among transportation and port operations partners,” he adds.
In fact, through the Gateway Infrastructure Program in partnership with the Government of Canada, municipal governments, First Nations, and business and other stakeholders, Port Metro Vancouver is amid 17 distinct land-side infrastructure projects aimed at increasing port
capacity and streamlining cargo flow. One 2010 highlight was the opening of the $400 million
Deltaport Container Terminal Third Berth in January, which increased capacity by 50% at that facility, the port’s largest. And the Vancouver port also signed new collaboration agreements with major railways CP Rail and CN Railway aimed at improving customer service in the important Vancouver Gateway — Canada’s busiest.
And on the environmental side, Port Metro Vancouver’s emissions reduction programme received international acclaim, earning the Globe 2010 ecoFreight Award for Sustainable Transportation. The port was also recognized for its Air Action Program having been nominated for the International Sustainable Shipping Award.
As well, Port Metro Vancouver improved incentives for cleaner ships to call and together with government and industry brought shore power to its main cruise terminal, Canada Place. The 44 connections in 2010 were the equivalent of removing 770 cars from the roads for a year.
Primarily a container port, Long Beach saw the biggest one-year gain of any seaport in the United States in 2010, moving 6.3 million TEUs, a gain of 1.2 million TEUs over recession ravaged 2009. That accomplishment saw 36mt of cargo moved by container, a 19.6% boost over 2009.
Bulk cargo is also trending up with dry bulk up 5.2% at 6.8mt in 2010. Steel/breakbulk was up slightly in 2010 at 905,021 tonnes.
However, early signs that consumer confidence was returning with vehicles moved in 2010 reaching 214,314 units and up 16.1% over a year earlier had slipped in 2011. In April auto handling numbers dropped an incredible 86% to only 2,442 units, perhaps showing that car sales inventories were now full.
The Port of Long Beach is planning to spend about US$4 billion over the next decade on infrastructure projects including the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement. The current bridge handles a staggering 15% of all US imports and is sadly outdated, being built in the late 1960s. The new US$1 billion bridge could begin construction by the end of 2011 and be ready for service in 2016.
In another major development, the Pier G container terminal is being redeveloped in a US$850 million project that will see a
new LEED-certified administration, operation and maintenance building, and an expanded on dock rail yard that will almost double current capacity by late 2013.
In a US$1 billion Middle Harbour Redevelopment Project, two existing container terminals will be combined into a highly- modern single terminal over 10 years of construction to bring double the capacity. The project will also cut air pollution by half through the increased use of on-dock rail, shore power and clean cargo handling equipment.
Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles have also gained credits for their signature Clean Trucks Program, which reached an important milestone in 2010 by banning all drayage trucks made before 1993. Today, more than 90% of container movements in the port are done by trucks that meet the strict US Environmental Protection Agency 2007 emission standards.
And earlier in 2011, Long Beach announced an innovative air pollution reduction device called the ‘seawater scrubber’. The equipment aims to cut diesel soot on vessels by 85% and is being tested for the first time on a container ship visiting Southern California thanks to a US$3.4 million project co- sponsored with the Port of Los Angeles.
PORT OF LOS ANGELES, CAAfter a ‘painful’ second half of 2008 and 2009 for world trade, the port feels it has weathered the worst of the recession with a 16% container cargo lift in 2010. As North America’s busiest container port, Los Angeles boosted TEUs to 7.8 million with exports up 10.3% and imports up by 12.8%. “While those gains are still short of our record 2006 year of 8.5 million containers, 2010 was still a great recovery year,” says Phillip Sanfield, Director of Media Relations.
The growth has continued into 2011 with the 1st Quarter showing a 10% lift over the same three months of 2009. Sanfield says partly responsible for the recovery is a TradeConnect program where the port helps small and medium-sized businesses to grow their exports.
Not surprisingly, containers made up 41.2mt out of the total throughput of 52.3mt at the port in 2010. Outside the box traffic, petroleum fuel oil reached 6mt up 6.7% over 2009; steel was up 105% at 965,000 tonnes; and autos measured in tonnes reached 263,000 compared to 164,000, up about 60%. There have been no cement imports for two years through Los Angeles because of the construction slump in the US allowing domestic cement supply to meet current demands.
The container traffic highlights were pet/animals feeds, which were up 45% at 2.2mt; cotton up 19% at 1.23mt, and auto parts, up 25.7% at 1.1mt. Trainloads of local products such as distillate grain used as animal feed are being stuffed into empty containers.
Port of Los Angeles Business Development Manager, Marcel
van Dijk, says there is still healthy competition with the Port of Long Beach for shipping lines. “It keeps us very sharp and that’s a good thing.”
Port development is described as a five-year, US$1.2 billion Capital Improvement Program. Due for completion in 2013 is a 13-year-long US$379 million main channel deepening project, which is taking the shipping channel serving the port’s eight container terminals from 45 to 53 feet.
As well,TraPac and China Shipping terminal expansions are underway, spending US$350 million to create additional wharf space, backland expansion, and on-dock rail facilities. And US$25 million is being spent on roads serving the TraPac Terminal as part of federal stimulus spending.
Los Angeles shares in the success of the Clean Truck Program with Long Beach and is encouraging shipping lines to bring their cleanest vessels to the port. Another measure sets goals and standards to prompt railroads to bring their newest and cleanest locomotives to local near-dock rail yards and to docks in the port. And despite increasing cargo volumes, Los Angeles has been successful in decreasing diesel exhaust; it has installed solar panels on the roof of its World Cruise Centre; and was the first port worldwide to offer a tariff reduction for zero-emission vehicle shipments.
PORT OF PORTLAND, ORThe completion of the deepening of the Columbia River navigation channel from 40 to 43 feet has proven to be a huge boost to recovery from the crippling recession for the Port of Portland. The channel deepening was 20 years in the making and is finally paying off in 2011 with a burst of new transportation and terminal infrastructure, bringing new customers and tenants, and other landside development.
After ‘rough times’ for the port in late 2008 and through 2009, Portland is bouncing back thanks in part to its diversity of cargo types — containers, autos, grain, mineral bulks and break bulk steel imports, according to Josh Thomas, the port’s Manager of Industrial Development.
The mix was enough to give the port its third best year ever in 2010 at 11.9mt, a 28% increase over the slump in 2009. Breakbulk jumped 146%, mineral bulks 68%, grain 11%, autos by 10% and containers increased by 4%.
Exports of potash and soda ash led the way at 4.8mt, while bulk grain exports such as wheat, corn and soyabeans gave Terminal 5 another record year at 4.3mt, up 11% over 2009.
Break bulk imports, including steel rail, steel slab and oversized project cargo gave the port its largest boost of the year with a 146% increase over 2009, coming in at 876,281 tonnes.
The port went from operator to landlord with International Container Terminal Services, Inc. taking over the container facility on a 25-year lease with plans to boost both imports and exports. As well, Portland is spending over US$500 million on improvements to its marine terminals and the roads and rail that serve the port.
In the year to date to the end of April 2011, the port is up only slightly at 1% in total tonnage over the same four months of 2010. Recovery is still a struggle with autos down 15%, bulk grain down 12.4%, and break bulk down 3.5%.The bright spot is in container movements which were up 24.6%.
PORT OF SEATTLE,WA
Container traffic is back big time in Washington State’s busiest port and box movements were largely responsible for a 35% year-over-year increase at 16.3 million of the total tonnage of 22,731,202 and the best performance in a decade or more. The boxes represented 2.1 million TEUs, the biggest year ever for the port, and lifted it in the rankings of US container ports to sixth spot.
Against this backdrop, breakbulk continued to be a minor player at 66,140 tonnes in 2010, and that was only slightly ahead of performance in this category in 2009.
Grain shipments reached 5.5mt in 2010, down slightly on the previous year. Molasses were up a small fraction at 40,173 tonnes. Petroleum shipments at 802,843 tonnes were also up slightly over 2009.
Seattle continues to go green as a port and the port’s At Berth Clean Fuels Program kept over 300 tonnes of pollutants out of the atmosphere in 2010. The port also removed close to 300 older more polluting trucks from the drayage fleet, replacing them with trucks 10 years newer on average.
No major capital projects are underway in the port.
PORT OF TACOMA,WAThe year 2010 was largely a holding pattern for total tonnage at the Port of Tacoma as throughput slipped 4.8% over 2009 performance to 14,998,221 tonnes. However, in 2011 the port is generally performing better, even if it appears to be one of the last West Coast ports to shake off the recession.
A bright spot in 2010 was the return of raw log exports after no shipments for several years. In all, 365,799 tonnes were exported last year. Already 2011 shipments through April were up 496% at 208,368 tonnes with huge demand coming from China.
Auto imports from Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki were up 3% in 2010 at 120,996 units.
As the main bulk commodity handled, grain slipped to 5,577,876 tonnes in 2010, down about 350,000 tonnes from the
previous year. Grain is doing better this year with 1,931,520 tonnes shipped through April and that was up 7.5%.
Container traffic is still the port’s main reason for being and in 2010 boxes handled declined 5.8% over the previous year to 1,455,467 TEUs. A hefty portion — some 478,762 TEUs — provides a vital box service to Hawaii and Alaska. The news has been better this year and through April TEUs were at 465,098 and that was up 7.9% over the same four months of 2009.
In capital works,Tacoma will complete a 600-foot wharf expansion at Washington United Terminals this summer. The terminal serves Hyundai container vessels. And also this summer, the port is completing a $53 million road/rail grade separation project along Lincoln Avenue to improve truck and rail traffic flow.
Last summer,Americold opened a $30 million new 200,000ft2 warehouse on port land, bringing to four the number of such facilities serving the Tacoma port.
Port Metro, the Port of Seattle and the Port of Tacoma have joined in the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy setting new standards for air quality.Tacoma has a clean truck programme like many ports, and is also working on a 23-acre habitat restoration site that will provide valuable freshwater and intertidal marsh, forested upland and riparian habitat along a salmon-bearing creek.
PORT OF VANCOUVER USA,WAA diverse cargo range helped the Port of Vancouver in southern Washington State survive the global recession with an 18% boost in throughput to 5,696,071 tonnes in 2010.
Wheat is still the main mover through the port — 3,696,474 tonnes last year and that was up 16% — but shipments of various commodities such as copper concentrate and scrap metal also helped exports to total 85% of all port tonnage. Heavy lifts of wind energy imports such as turbines and machinery are also niche cargoes for the port, which boasts being the only one in North America with two 140 tonne Liebherr mobile harbour cranes.
Developments under way will take the port annual capacity from 5 to 15mt and include the largest capital project in the port’s history, a US$150 million West Vancouver Freight Access rail upgrade project, spread over 10 years and due for completion in 2017. Grain elevator expansion at the port’s grain terminal, operated by United Grain Corporation, will almost double grain export capacity annually.And BHP Billiton has selected the port’s Terminal 5 as its preferred site for a new potash export facility with an 8 million tonne per year capacity when fully operational.
PRINCE RUPERT, BC
Good news spouts eternal at this northern British Columbia port, which continues to have amazing growth in all key lines of business from containers to coal, grain to raw logs.
Prince Rupert handled a record 16,424,512 tonnes in 2010 and is looking to break that mark in 2011 by handling an estimated 25mt. And despite being named North America’s fastest-growing container terminal and eight fastest in the world in 2010 by an international marine consulting firm, the port is readying for even more action.
Containers set a record at 343,366 TEUs and that was up 29.5% as the popularity of a fast, direct route to the US Mid-West continues to attract more traffic through Fairview Container Terminal.
There’s balance, too, in the Canada–Asia trade as imports
rose 24.2% in 2010 and exports were up by 37%. Canadian Government-owned Ridley Terminals almost
doubled its throughput in 2010 at 8,299,868 tonnes of coal, petroleum coke and wood pellets and that was the highest volume handled since it opened in 1984. Increasing shipments of coal from mines in northeastern BC and also from the US for the first time has the terminal looking for approvals to double its capacity from 12 to 24mt a year by 2015.
A new potash export terminal is also being explored for the port.
Grain shipments through Prince Rupert Grain dipped 15.5% in 2010 at 4,294,103, while raw logs from the port grew 62% over 2009. Even the port’s cruise business was up slightly in 2010.
Through April 2011, container traffic has slipped somewhat by 15% over the 2010 record pace, but coal exports at 1,230,237 tonnes are in a frenzy, up by 82.5% at Ridley. Wheat continues its slump, but raw logs at 168,556 tonnes are up 139% over the same period of 2009.
Fairview will become the first Canadian terminal to offer shore power to container ships this summer. Meanwhile, Phase II development of the facility is now in its environmental assessment stage and permitting is expected next year. The expansion will lift capacity to 1 million TEUs from the current 700,000.
“Over the next decade, we expect the Port of Prince Rupert to create another 50mt to our export capacity,” says a confident Shaun Stevenson,Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at the port.