Competition among eastern Canadian ports shifts gears
DUBAI's DP World is to lease, operate and expand Rodney Container Terminal at Saint John in eastern Canada's New Brunswick province.
When fully developed, the terminal is intended to serve as the neopanamax port for Boston which cannot berth such large vessels.
At present, the port located on the Bay of Fundy needs an upgrade to berth a neopanamaxes. The port has a twice daily tidal change of 15 metres, posing a challenge for port cranes at the future transshipment terminal, reports Fort Lauderdale's Maritime Executive.
Ceres Terminals operates Fairview Container Terminal in Halifax which can berth one neopanamax containership of up to 14,000 TEU.
Saint John has the advantage that the railway line to Montreal via state of Maine is about half the railway distance between Halifax and Montreal.
Halifax's Fairview Cove container terminal can berth a neopanamax ship for container transfers to smaller panamax size ships sailing to Boston and to Montreal, and during warm weather, Seawaymax size ships sailing to inland ports along the St Lawrence Seaway. The sailing distance from Halifax to Montreal is shorter than Saint John to Montreal.
Following further development at Saint John, the layout of berths at Rodney Terminal could eventually allow for easier transfer of containers between neopanamax and smaller ships that would sail to American ports such as Portland, Boston, New Haven and Bridgeport.
But Halifax will retain the competitive edge in terms of container transshipment from neopanamax ships to Montreal and Great Lakes bound ships.
Melford Terminals recently announced that a new partner would participate in the development of their long awaited transshipment terminal to accommodate containerships of +18,000 TEU.
Competing ports developer Harbour Ports Development Partners (HPDP) is engaged in the early stages of developing a transshipment terminal for mega ships at the Port of Sydney that connects directly to Cabot Strait.
Given that a 14,000-TEU ship could call at port of Halifax, vessels of 21,000 TEU and greater would need to call at Sydney and/or Melford to remain competitive, given the additional sailing distance via Suez Canal.
Eastern Canadian transshipment super terminals that berth mega ships could benefit from the development of transshipment super terminals on the coast of Brazil as well as at the southern tip of Africa. Such terminals would allow for development of future trade from western Australia, southern Africa, equatorial West Africa and South America to northeastern North America.
DUBAI's DP World is to lease, operate and expand Rodney Container Terminal at Saint John in eastern Canada's New Brunswick province.
When fully developed, the terminal is intended to serve as the neopanamax port for Boston which cannot berth such large vessels.
At present, the port located on the Bay of Fundy needs an upgrade to berth a neopanamaxes. The port has a twice daily tidal change of 15 metres, posing a challenge for port cranes at the future transshipment terminal, reports Fort Lauderdale's Maritime Executive.
Ceres Terminals operates Fairview Container Terminal in Halifax which can berth one neopanamax containership of up to 14,000 TEU.
Saint John has the advantage that the railway line to Montreal via state of Maine is about half the railway distance between Halifax and Montreal.
Halifax's Fairview Cove container terminal can berth a neopanamax ship for container transfers to smaller panamax size ships sailing to Boston and to Montreal, and during warm weather, Seawaymax size ships sailing to inland ports along the St Lawrence Seaway. The sailing distance from Halifax to Montreal is shorter than Saint John to Montreal.
Following further development at Saint John, the layout of berths at Rodney Terminal could eventually allow for easier transfer of containers between neopanamax and smaller ships that would sail to American ports such as Portland, Boston, New Haven and Bridgeport.
But Halifax will retain the competitive edge in terms of container transshipment from neopanamax ships to Montreal and Great Lakes bound ships.
Melford Terminals recently announced that a new partner would participate in the development of their long awaited transshipment terminal to accommodate containerships of +18,000 TEU.
Competing ports developer Harbour Ports Development Partners (HPDP) is engaged in the early stages of developing a transshipment terminal for mega ships at the Port of Sydney that connects directly to Cabot Strait.
Given that a 14,000-TEU ship could call at port of Halifax, vessels of 21,000 TEU and greater would need to call at Sydney and/or Melford to remain competitive, given the additional sailing distance via Suez Canal.
Eastern Canadian transshipment super terminals that berth mega ships could benefit from the development of transshipment super terminals on the coast of Brazil as well as at the southern tip of Africa. Such terminals would allow for development of future trade from western Australia, southern Africa, equatorial West Africa and South America to northeastern North America.