With the container volumes almost doubled since 2012, Canada’s Port Saint John will need a terminal upgrade to accommodate larger vessels in order to keep up with the competition, Jim Quinn, the port’s President and CEO said in a release.
Earlier this month the port submitted a CAD 205 million (USD 164.8m) application to the Federal Government’s Building Canada Fund, National Infrastructure Component to modernize its container infrastructure on the west side of the Port over the next seven years. The proposed project is a planned three-way partnership with the Federal Government, Port Saint John, and the Provincial Government over a seven-year period.
Located in New Brunswick, Port Saint John has attracted some of the world’s top container shipping lines in the past two years, including Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Tropical Shipping, to offer their clients weekly service to global markets through Saint John. Due these developments, more than 350 ports worldwide are now accessible through Port Saint John on a weekly basis.
“We have doubled our container traffic, going from an average of 45,000 TEU’s in the past decade to almost 90,000 TEU’s in 2014, with projections to be over 100,000 TEU’s in 2015,” said Quinn. ”We also know that US ports are becoming more and more congested. Shippers and receivers are looking for Eastern options and with this upgrade we think Port Saint John and New Brunswick can be the solution.”