Domestic and foreign container volumes continue to increase, according to mid-year numbers from Port Metro Vancouver.
The port authority last week released its mid-2013 figures indicating new records in key sectors, including cargo volumes that show Port Metro Vancouver handled 66.4 million tonnes through the end of June.
According to the port, total foreign tonnage at Port Metro Vancouver posted a seven per cent increase with 52.7 million tonnes handled, while total domestic tonnage also increased over last year by three per cent to 13.7 million tonnes.
The mid-year throughput volumes reflect continuing demand for high quality Canadian commodities by Asian economies as well as strength in the Canadian economy, president and CAO Robin Silvester said in a news release.
"What we have seen to the mid-point in 2013 is continuing strong demand for Canadian natural resources, with all the major economic benefits that provides for the local and national economy," he said.
Meanwhile, the port authority continues the process of updating its land use plan, as well as work on a formal application for an new three-berth terminal at Roberts Bank, called Terminal 2 (T2), to be built adjacent to the existing Deltaport container facility.
Silvester told the Optimist refined details of the new land use plan are out for yet another round of consultation, a process that he expects to finally wrap up early next year.
As far as T2, he said an application would be submitted to government this fall. A number of field studies have already been done and habitat restoration projects are now underway.
It's not clear at this time whether all three T2 berths will be constructed at the same time when the new container facility would open around 2021, or whether they would be built in phases.
Noting Deltaport is already reaching 75 per cent capacity, and the port may need all the additional capacity sooner than later, Silvester said it will all depend on growth rates over the next couple of years.
Helping meet additional capacity needs in the short term is the Deltaport Road and Rail Improvement Project, he said, but there's no question T2 will be needed to meet an everincreasing demand. "If we grow at this rate over the three or four we had projected, we'll need all that additional capacity right away at Terminal 2 as well as the expansion of (port of) Prince Rupert," Silvester added.
PMV notes current projections indicate approximately four million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of additional capacity will be needed to meet West Coast container demand by 2030, double current volumes.
