Container traffic at the Port of Halifax is spiking this year as it grabs a growing share of the market due to its newfound ability to receive bigger cargo ships coming through the new Suez and Panama Canals.

In the first six months of this year, container traffic at the Port of Halifax jumped 19.6 per cent over the comparable period in 2015. Halifax has the highest percentage growth in container traffic for the first half of this year compared to other North American ports.

During the comparable period, the Port of Vancouver saw a 5.5 per cent drop and the Port of Montreal saw a 2.3 per cent hit in the number of containers.

In the United States, the ports of New York and New Jersey saw container traffic slide by 1.7 per cent. And while there has been growth at some ports, like Miami which saw an increase of 5.5 per cent, the biggest percentage jump so far this year has been in Halifax.

Industry insiders are chalking it up to three things: a low Canadian dollar; fast and efficient turnaround of container cargo in Halifax; and the port being ready to handle the new, big ships coming from Asia through the newly-widened and lengthened Suez and Panama canals.

Asian cargo already accounts for roughly half the Port of Halifax’s container cargo.

“The Suez has been widened and the Panama has been extended and is open, so you can now have all-water service coming from Asia to Halifax,” said Ruth Snowden, executive director of Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, in an interview.

In 2015, the Port of Halifax deepened and lengthened its piers to be able to handle the bigger new Panamax ships which are capable of handling the equivalent of 13,000 20-foot long containers. In the shipping industry, container traffic is measured in terms of these formerly-standard containers, or TEUs.

“Vessels upwards of 12,000 TEUs can now use the Panama Canal, but not all ports can handle [the new larger vessels],” said Lane Farguson, a spokesman for the Halifax Port Authority.

It was only a few years ago that the Port of Halifax was limited to vessels in the 4,000 TEU range. Now, the port can handle container vessels three times as large.

“We worked with our key tenants and stakeholders to develop the infrastructure to accommodate vessels three times that size: longer and deeper piers; upgraded truck gates, and marshalling areas for efficiency,” said Farguson. “The terminal operators invested in super post-Panamax cranes.”

That’s paying off.

In August last year, the 8,450-TEU CMA CGM Vivaldi, the biggest ship to call on the Port of Halifax until then, docked at the Halterm Terminal. The Vivaldi, which uses the Suez Canal, brought with it containers from China, Malaysia and Vietnam and left with containers headed for New York, Norfolk and Savannah.

It was the first new service to call at Halifax using the Suez Canal — and it was soon followed by the arrival of the even larger 8,750-TEU Hapag-Lloyd Budapest Express, a service of the G6 Alliance, that docked at the Ceres Terminal.

Since then, other ships capable of handling up to 9,400 TEU have come to Halifax and the port authority is already in the early stages of a master plan to get itself ready for even larger container vessels of more than 10,000 TEUs.

The low loonie helps. With the Canadian dollar bouncing around 77 cents American, Canadian terminal operators benefit from relatively lower docking fees and stevedoring costs than do their U.S. counterparts, said Craig Hennigar, Colliers International’s director of market intelligence, in an interview.

“As the Canadian dollar drops, that advantage increases because the cost of taking a container off the boat and onto a railcar is a big factor in shipping,” he said.

Another big factor is quite simply the port’s ability to handle containers quickly and work with railways and trucking companies to move goods efficiently.

In Vancouver, labour disputes and renovations to a rail line at its Deltaport facility have plagued port operations for the past few years, resulting in freight companies getting increasingly dissatisfied with the amount of time containers sit on the docks, usually called dwell time.

“In Halifax, we have a very low dwell time,” said Farguson. “Although we may not be the port closest to our customer, because we have such a low dwell time we may be able to get it there faster.”

The Port of Halifax aims for a dwell time of two days. In Vancouver, the dwell times are routinely5-7 days, said Snowden.

“Vancouver’s a bloody disaster right now but Halifax is completely fluid,” she said. “I have not heard of any issues at the Port of Halifax. They don’t have the same congestion on the docks.”

The Port of Halifax has enough space to be able to triple its operations on its existing land, said Farguson.

When the Canadian Border Services Agency needs to inspect a container, that extra space makes things easier for the Port of Halifax where these inspections are done more quickly than in Vancouver, said Snowden.

The executive director of the national freight forwarders thinks the time lost at the Port of Vancouver, compared with Halifax, may be encouraging companies to use the Atlantic seaport.

“You can avoid the West Coast congestion — and the longer you’re on the water and the less you’re on the rails, the less it costs,” she said.

The Halifax Port Authority and the Ceres-Halifax and Halterm Container Terminal operators have also worked together to improve the tools used to track containers throughout the entire process.

Earlier this year, the Halifax Port Authority announced updates to its HalifaxGetsItThere.com website to make it easier for importers and exporters to do business through the port. The new tool tracks the container as it moves through the supply chain from the vessel to the terminal, intermodal transport or truck. Shippers can use automated alerts and get notified by e-mail or text message.

“The Port of Halifax has a lower volume of containers, less congestion and a different reservation system with trucks. It helps with visibility and transparency,” said Snowden. “You can see where your container is.”

The arrival of the super-big vessels does, however, pose a challenge. Halifax Port Authority president and CEO Karen Oldfield has said the port will have to scour Atlantic Canada and its hinterland to be able take up the capacity of those vessels.

“We have to move beyond Atlantic Canada. Growth opportunities are going to have to come from markets that are further away,” said Farguson. “The challenge is getting that buyer in Chicago, Boston, Toronto or Detroit to look at us.”

Source: The ChronicleHerald