The Fairview container terminal at Prince Rupert in British Columbia opened today, providing an "express trade corridor" that slashes more than two days off shipping times between Asia and North America.

China Ocean Shipping Co (Cosco) has already been signed up as a customer and its first ship will call in October with a weekly service. Several other lines are expected to make similar announcements in coming weeks and the port believes the terminal's 500,000 TEU capacity will be filled by next year.

The port has already completed 90 percent of the engineering toward a US$650-million second-phase, 1.5-million TEU expansion. A second container terminal is also on the cards and it will add an additional two to three million TEUs.