Retailers eye Halifax route

January 13, 2005

13 January 2005

Retailers eye Halifax route

The following article is excerpted from the 13 January 2005 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

The Port of Halifax …, left out of the cargo boom of 2004, is forecasting a 4 percent to 5 percent increase from existing North Atlantic carriers in 2005.

End-of-year traffic data to be released shortly will reflect the published statistics for the first 11 months of 2004, Patricia McDermott, vice-president of marketing, Halifax Port Authority, said…. These show import cargo down 1.5 percent to 6.24 million metric tons from the 2003 period, and export cargo up 2.4 percent to 6.41 million tons. Containerized traffic was down 2.2 percent to 4.14 million tons as the number of containers slipped 3.1 percent to 485,220. Box traffic eventually surpassed the 500,000 mark.

…. Discussions with existing trans-Atlantic carriers indicate cargo growth of "conservatively, between 4% and 5%, although we would hope for, and have the capacity for, more than that."

Further growth may come from Asian traffic diverted from the West Coast of North America through the Suez Canal, McDermott said.

Retailers had shown "an interest in using the East Coast, and in using Halifax, for Asian business," she said. "And the opportunities will come when shipping lines look to the Suez to handle that business. I definitely see that as an opportunity."

Paul Waite, vice-president for Canadian National Railway, in an earlier interview said that major Canadian retailers have started to route some Asian freight via Suez to Halifax.

Containers traffic to and from the U.S. Midwest via Halifax rose between 1 percent and 2 percent, to 17 percent of the port's total container traffic, McDermott said.

The authority is currently dredging to a uniform 55 foot depth at its Cerescorp. container terminal and will be doing so at its Halterm terminal, to accommodate the biggest ships headed for New York-New Jersey or elsewhere in the U.S., she said.


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
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