The Montreal Port Authority reported this January that container cargo rose 7.2 percent to a record 1.5 million TEUs in 2008, Truck News reported.
Although the Port Authority then went on to say that container traffic could drop by 3.7 percent in 2009, the Montreal Gateway Terminals Partnership forecasts a nearly seven percent annual growth in container traffic between 2008 and 2020.
This is music to the ears of railways and carriers that move containers to and from Montreal. It will also cheer shipping companies, which want some of the coastal and inland waterways' container action.
The mode of transport they want to make more mainstream is called short sea shipping, which takes place along the coast and on inland waterways, not ocean crossings.
Oceanex already moves containers, trucks and other cargo on its three container ships to and from its terminals in St John's, Corner Brook, Montreal and Halifax.
Last December the Hamilton Port Authority (HPA) launched its short sea shipping initiative when McKeil Marine moved a barge carrying 68 containers from Hamilton to Montreal.
HPA notes that 500,000 TEUs a year move in and out of Ontario via east coast ports. All of it moved by rail and truck. Container movements and project cargo moves are major areas of focus for the port's business development.
Toronto-based Upper Lakes Group is already doing some short sea shipping on the St. Lawrence to Cote Ste-Catherine, Trois Rivieres and Quebec City, but that is mostly grain and agricultural by-products.
The Upper Lakes Group is looking at using two or three 800-1,000 TEU vessels for moving containers between the Melford Terminal and Ontario's Golden Horseshoe, then continue their journeys by truck.
A Quebec-based association called the Armateurs du Saint-Laurent (Saint Lawrence ship operators) has been working for several years to develop short sea shipping but the going is rough, according to executive director Nicole Trepanier.
"Short sea shipping faces cost structure problems and opposition from transportation companies like CN. The cost structure for marine is very complicated. It can cost more, take longer, but what helps us is cost efficiency for fuel and the volume we carry."
For short sea shipping to work, ships have to have cargo in both directions to be viable, and they need to have long-term contracts with shippers.
"You don't do it on a one-shot deal. We are trying to make shippers aware of the kind of services we can offer," Trepanier said. |
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Source: Cargonewsasia
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