Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project Ship traffic information sheet
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is responsible for ensuring that Canada’s largest port is ready for growing trade and the ships that trade will bring. The Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project is a proposed container terminal in Delta, B.C. that is needed to ensure Canada is able to meet its trade objectives through the mid- to late-2030s. The project is currently undergoing a federal environmental assessment by an independent review panel.
Ship traffic and the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project
In 2015, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority Rupert. The number of regular services to Pacific submitted to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Northwest ports will not change if Roberts Bank Agency the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project Terminal 2 is built. Environmental Impact Statement, which considered • The total number of container ships that serve the impact of the project within a defined scope set Port of Vancouver container terminals will be the out by the agency. At the request of the agency, the same, whether or not Roberts Bank Terminal 2 port authority also submitted the Marine Shipping is built. What will change is the size of the ships, Addendum in 2015, which assessed project-related which will be slightly larger on average if the shipping outside of the port authority’s jurisdiction in project proceeds, and the amount of cargo loaded the Salish Sea. and unloaded in Vancouver, which will increase by In developing those documents, we estimated the approximately 33 per cent. number of ships expected as a result of the Roberts • As a result of industry shipping trends, the 2018 Bank Terminal 2 Project. Since then, there have been study forecasts fewer overall ship calls to the developments in the container shipping industry, such Port of Vancouver in 2035 than there were in as an accelerated trend toward larger ship sizes and 2017, with or without Roberts Bank Terminal 2, the overbuilding of shipping capacity, which led to the despite an increase in container volumes. This is demise of some shipping companies and the formation a continuation of the trend of declining container of new service alliances among others, all of which ship calls and larger ships at the Port of Vancouver motivated us to seek validation of our earlier estimates. since around 2005. • Though the total number of ships calling on the Results of 2018 container ship call study Port of Vancouver will not be affected by Roberts The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority commissioned Bank Terminal 2, its construction will result in Mercator International1 to provide a forecast of a higher number of container ships calling on container ship traffic travelling through the Salish Sea Roberts Bank terminals and fewer calling on and serving Pacific Northwest ports, with or without Vancouver’s inner harbour and Fraser River the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project. terminals. Using forecasts for overall container volumes provided • If Roberts Bank Terminal 2 is not built, increasing by Ocean Shipping Consultants, Mercator provided import demand for container cargo by Canadians the following key findings and conclusions about ship will go through U.S. ports. This would result in numbers: higher costs, higher transportation emissions and unrealized economic opportunity, including jobs, • Alliances, or groups of shipping lines, work for Canadians. together to each offer regular, generally weekly, service to Pacific Northwest ports, including the ports of Vancouver, Seattle/Tacoma and Prince 1Mercator International is a consulting agency with experts in the global transportation sector. They have extensive experience working with stakeholders from port authorities, ocean carriers, terminal operators and cargo owners around the world.
1 Vancouver Fraser Port Authority | RBT2 | Ship traffic | November 2018 Container shipping alliances How container ship services operate Three international shipping alliances, made up of Ship services are routes developed by shipping line individual shipping companies, have formed in recent alliances that allow the alliance to call ports on regular, years to more efficiently use their ships by operating usually weekly, schedules. The alliances structure regular-scheduled services around the world. This is routes and schedules in ways that make the most not unlike airline company alliances, which have been sense to them and their customers, based on strategic, common for years. These alliances deploy a number of commercial and volume drivers. Ultimately, their goal is regular services to Pacific Northwest ports from Asia, to maximize the efficient use of their ship assets. Europe and Australia.
International ocean carrier alliances
The Alliance Ocean Alliance 2M + H
Example of a single container shipping alliance service route
Port o anco er Port o Tacoma ajor sian orts
CONTAINER SHIP SERVICE ROUTE R R RT sia to ort merica