Some export competition for Prince Rupert Grain appears on the horizon

Prince Rupert Grain on Ridley Island
may soon see some new competition for
exports from a Vancouver terminal

A new challenger may on the way for Prince Rupert Grain when it comes to shipments of grain through west coast facilities, that as a major International grain exporter considers its plans for a state of the art terminal in North Vancouver.

Proponents of the terminal, which would be the first new grain terminal in the Vancouver area in 50 years has outlined an ambitious development plan, which when completed could see the turn around time of a 130 car unit train brought down to under six hours.

The capacity level of the proposed facility would see storage levels of 180,000 tonnes of grain, with the potential to export six to eight million tonnes of grain per year out of Port Metro Vancouver.

A North Vancouver port facility is
being considered for a new grain
terminal for the West Coast 

The location for the proposed grain terminal is on land that is now hosting the West gate of the Lynnterm Terminal operations.

The project is being proposed by a consortium of two agriculture related companies known as G3 Global Grain Group, which include Bunge Ltd. and Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company.

Earlier this year the group acquired a 50.1 percent controlling interest of the Canadian Wheat Board.

The Western Producer outlined a fair bit of history in this report, focusing on the consortium that is looking to build the North Vancouver terminal, as well as some of the controversy behind the selection of the North Vancouver site for it to be built upon.

Canadian National which delivers grain products to the Prince Rupert Grain Terminal, will also be featured prominently in the new North Vancouver development, it is the CN line that services that section of the Port Metro Vancouver port lands.

G3 Global Grain Group CEO Karl Gerrand outlined the proposed development for Business News Network, you can review that interview below.

During the course of the nine minute review, Mr. Gerrand provides the timeline of potential development for the Vancouver terminal, suggesting an anticipated a completion date of mid 2019 to bring the terminal to export status.

The main selling point for G3 when it comes to the proposed Vancouver terminal is how they believe the addition of export capacity on the West coast will reduce the bottleneck of grain from the prairies to export destinations.



Whether a new export facility on the West coast would have an impact on shipment levels out of the North Coast terminal on Ridley Island is something that local workers will perhaps want the know more about as the G3 plans move forward.

For more items of note related to the operations of Prince Rupert Grain see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review