It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the passing of our company founder and former CEO, Richard (Rick) Barlow. Rick passed away January 28, 2024 surrounded by his family, after a brave, near 4 year battle with cancer. Rick had an amazing career and was a huge contributor to the local shipping market, serving as a board member for the Pacific Pilotage Authority, the BC Chamber of Shipping, and the Vancouver Grain Exchange, to name just a few. It is impossible to list all of his contributions and achievements here but he certainly raised the bar for what it is to be a ship agent and a responsible businessman. Our love, support, and sympathies go out to his family. We will miss you Rick.
SAMM Towage, a tugboat service provider operating in British Columbia, marked a historic moment for the maritime industry with its first all-female tugboat crew on a journey from Prince Rupert to Stewart. Captain Hailey McIntyre and deckhand Ocean Rutherford embarked on the 12-hour voyage, assisting with vessel docking and undocking upon arrival. This milestone reflects the coastal industry’s openness to diversity, offering many opportunities for those interested in pursuing careers in the marine industry. SAMM Towage Canada’s director of operations, Brook Walker, expressed pride in celebrating this unique occurrence in the company’s 70 years of history, highlighting the company’s commitment to inclusivity. Recruiting local mariners is becoming increasingly difficult and we are working with the Western Marine Community Coalition members and governments in evolving and executing a workforce recruitment and retention strategy.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project to Westridge Marine Terminal in Vancouver Harbour looks set to face yet another delay in completion due to “technical issues”.
In a statement released to their website on January 29, Trans Mountain advised that it had once again run into construction challenges in B.C. and may have to further push back the estimated completion date of the first quarter, of 2024.
The project, bought by the Canadian Federal Government in 2018, in what was a bit of a bailout for Kinder Morgan at the time, has encountered numerous construction delays, faced strong environmental opposition, and of course, just like any time the government is paying, has rung up huge cost overruns. The budget has in fact already gone close to six times over the original estimate, from $5.4 billion to $30.9 billion
When the expansion is finally completed, tanker traffic from the Westridge Marine Terminal is expected to quadruple, loading up to approximately 34 tankers per month. The size of tankers calling at Westridge will not change, however, with the largest tankers remaining Aframax-size vessels.
This substantial increase in tanker traffic going into and out of Westridge is also going to lead to delays for some other vessels loading east of 2nd Narrows in Burrard Inlet. As the Vancouver Harbour Master has elected to prioritize the movement of tankers vessels, we will inevitably see sulphur and potash vessels that load at Pacific Coast Terminals being shut out of transit tidal windows through 2nd Narrows, in order to make way for the tankers.
The Canadian Grain Commission has this week released their full quality reports for CWRS, CWAD, and CPSR wheats for 2023.
The quality of the CWRS crop was found to be excellent for the year, with more than 97 percent of the crop being in the top two grades. Full quality reports are now available for canola, barley, peas, and the other major crops.
Among the highlights: protein content average is the same as last year, but higher than the 10-year average and barley exhibited excellent average germination energy.
CGC have also revised their report formats which now feature overall quality summaries, more visual charts & graphs and additional resources.
The Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA) has just released their annual cargo figures revealing that 23.5 million tonnes of cargo moved through the Port of Prince Rupert in 2023, five percent less than overall volumes in 2022.
This marks a third consecutive year of volume decline and reflects the challenges of shifting global shipping routes, soft demand for imports, and competition with other North American trade gateways for discretionary cargo. However, despite the decline in volumes, significant milestones were reached in 2023 that support the evolution of the trade gateway to become more competitive, resilient, and sustainable in the near and long term.
DP World Prince Rupert’s Fairview Container Terminal saw a 32 percent decrease in volumes in 2023. This significant drop is due to a broader decline in North American intermodal imports and strong competition on Transpacific trade routes. Terminal performance was also impacted by labour action that halted operations for 13 days in Q3.
Demand for western Canadian energy products was strong in 2023, with AltaGas’ Ridley Island Propane Export Terminal shipping nearly 2 million tonnes, a 13 percent increase over 2022. Pembina’s Watson Island LPG Bulk Terminal entered its third year of operations, handling close to 494,000 tonnes, an eight percent decrease year-over-year. Drax’s Westview Wood Pellet Terminal shipped 1.3 million tonnes to markets in Europe and Asia.
Trigon Pacific Terminals also saw a strong year, moving 8.8 million tonnes of dry bulk product through its terminal, including 5.4 million tonnes of metallurgical coal. Shipments of that product saw a 51 percent jump over 2022.
A strong harvest year contributed to Prince Rupert Grain Terminal shipping 3,595.044 tonnes of Western Canadian agricultural products, an 11 percent rise over the 3,226,356 tonnes shipped in 2022.
