Counting on Canada's wide open spaces and congestion-free road and rail connections to the US, Melford International Terminal Inc. (MITI) plans to build a US$300-million container terminal on the Canso Strait in Nova Scotia to take expected overflow Asian cargo from American ports.

The major routing for this cargo is expected to be through the Suez Canal, making Atlantic Canada the closest North American point of entry, said a report in the Halifax Chronicle Herald.



MITI chief executive Bob Stevens told the newspaper that the company is aware of the risks in developing such a project, but "we are convinced it [cargo growth] will happen".



Mr Stevens, betting that America will be inundated with container cargo from India and China by 2012, said he was also optimistic that the very large containerships built today would create congestion that a Canadian terminal could relieve. The Canso project can also offer value-added services through distribution and warehouse facilities within its planned logistics park, he said.