Port of Vancouver volume up 1% last year despite pandemic, supply, flooding
BNN Bloomberg
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says cargo volumes increased one per cent to 146 million tonnes last year despite the pandemic, global supply chain challenges and extreme weather in B.C. at the end of the year.
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says cargo volumes increased one per cent to 146 million tonnes last year despite the pandemic, global supply chain challenges and extreme weather in B.C. at the end of the year.
The country's largest port says record container and foreign bulk volumes helped maintain cargo volumes despite trade challenges in a year in which the cruise season was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Grain volumes declined 13 per cent after eight straight record years due to drought in Western Canada in the second half of the year.
The number of shipping containers passing through the port increased six per cent to 3.7 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in 2021, a record for the fifth year in a row.
Amid the increase in container trade were an elevated number of empty containers, putting pressure on Canadian exporters as containers were rushed back to Asia to accommodate strong consumer demand in North America.
The port is warning that serious supply-chain problems will occur in a few years because west coast container terminals are expected to run out of capacity by the end of the decade.
