PORTS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA SAID THEY WERE PREPARED TO COPE WITH THE CONTINUED TRANSFER OF FREED-UP CARGO FROM PORTS IN THE EASTERN AND GULF OF MEXICO IF DOCK WORKERS IN THE EASTERN AND GULF COAST WENT ON STRIKE AS EXPECTED ON TUESDAY (10/01). Port officials and dock operators in Seattle and Tacoma Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) and Vancouver and Port Ruppert, Canada tell“Business Magazine”,Imports increased sharply in July and August andtransitoryAfter recovery, they are steadily restoring liquidity。
Jeff Bellerud, Chief Operating Officer of NWSA, said: “After dealing with the surge in imports in July and August, our seaplane utilization has returned to normal levels, with a dock utilization rate of 55% to 65%. According to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the average time for freight containers in Vancouver rose from 4 days in July to 6.3 days in August, but Canada's largest port appears to have eased in September. A Port spokesperson said: “With smooth container operations in Port Vancouver and strong daily rail production, we see a positive trend in container dwell times and dock lengths. Based on preliminary data for September, dock dwell times appear to be on a downward trend, close to seasonal normal levels.”
Similar to Vancouver, Prince Rupert Harbour reached the U.S. market via an Inland Point Multiple Connection (IPI) service to Chicago, which handled growing imports this summer and had enough capacity to handle the increased imports before the end of the year, Brian Friesen said. We have plenty of available capacity, short or long term, with no problems with container docking, rail supply or congestion.
Imports through the PNW increased by two percentage points this summer, mainly due to retailers shipping goods ahead of schedule in order to fend off the threat of strikes by the International Terminal Workers Association (ILA) to the Eastern and Gulf of Mexico, as well as short work, in August, against the Canadian National Railways (CN) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway (CPKC) were shut down. Under the banner of S&P GlobalBusiness MagazineSeattle-Tacoma U.S. imports from Asia grew 34.6% year-on-year from Asia, according to data from sister company PIERS. Port data showed that Vancouver's imports increased 17.4% last month and Ruppert's Prince Port increased by 35%.
Exceptionally strong import volumes make BNSF and United Pacific Railroad (UP) serving the NWSAandCanadian Railways in VancouverEquipment resources are strained, leading to an imbalance in freight trains and an extended period of time for rail containers, leading to congestion at shipping terminals.
North American rail companies say they have experienced a peak summer import surge and expect multi-modal container volumes, although they may remain at higher levels at least in October, despite weeks of port closures in the East and Gulf of Mexico, they are confident that rail containers should be contained in the coming months The dwell time will be downtrend. Jon Gabriel, vice president of the BNSF Consumer Goods Group, said the average rail stop time at the Seattle-Tacoma Container Terminal, which currently serves BNSF services, is about five days. The dock operator says that the dwell time of rail containers should always be kept within three to four days to prevent congestion. Gabriel said BNSF is working with Eastern Rail to ship more empty containers and rail cars back to the Chicago hub, a plan that should improve the overall balance of rail cars.
A UP spokesman said United Pacific's combined traffic in the PNW in August reached its highest level since 2012. Although Seattle-Tacoma imports will remain strong this fall, UP is working closely with container dock operators to share data and deploy enough equipment to handle the volume, and UP declined to disclose the average dwell time for its Seattle-Tacoma-controlled rail containers. CPKC's network has recovered from the August shutdown of Canadian Rail and is now running smoothly, a spokesperson said. At the same time, CN is monitoring labor situations involving ILA and maritime employers and working closely with customers to minimize potential impacts.
Pier operators in the Pacific Northwest say they are coordinating with the Port Authority and rail departments to reduce congestion and improve rail operations at their facilities. Eric Waltz, president of GCT Canada, which operates Deltaport, said buffering capacity at Deltaport Pier in Vancouver has increased by 35% to 40% since the rail shutdown in August. The pier typically loads about 35,000 feet of outbound multi-modal rail freight per day. Port D'Amée currently carries approximately 4,000 cargoes per day, with a recent peak of 54,000 feet.
BNSF and UP have already pre-deployed more equipment in the PNW that will help Takoma's Husky Pier reduce rail container dwell time from six days last month to five days or less as the assets are in place, said Dustin Stoker, president of the Husky Pier.
“Currently, SSA Marine has an average length of eight days for rail containers at Seattle's three docks, about twice as long as last month when carriers began diverting some vessels from Tacoma's crowded dock to stop in Seattle, and SSA expects rail stops to resume normal in the coming weeks,” an SSA spokesperson said. Trans-Pacific Shipping has increased its Wednesday flights to the Pacific Northwest this year in response to a double-digit increase in imports, reflecting an increase in daily ship stops at Seattle-Tacoma, with an average of fewer than two per day for container ships last year. Seattle-Tacoma's average call volume has always been 2.23 times today, according to data from the Phuket Bay Maritime Exchange.
