Thursday, June 9, 2022

Prince Rupert's Port Container operations grab second spot on North American west coast, but it's a long road ahead to Global Top Dog status

A new report from the World Bank has ranked all of the world's container handling shipping ports and for the Port of Prince Rupert in frame the North American pool, and. on the West coast in particular the standings are impressive. 

But looking at the scope of the North American findings makes for much work ahead to compete with the Top ports of the world.

The report which charts the performance of the global container shipping industry is designed to identify gaps and opportunities for Port operators and serve as a reference point for those involved in the global supply chain.

The methodology of the report explored the volume of port calls, length of time to service the vessels and the capabilities of the ports to handle cargo on the range of container vessels transiting the global trade routes today.

More on how the World Bank compiled its data and reviewed the global shipping industry can be reviewed from the Executive Summary to the report at the start of the document, which you can review here.

The Gold Standard for container ports in 2022 is found in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Port and the Port of Salalah in Oman the ports that found the most success in the rankings for 2021.

The Saudi port is the Kingdom's newest port facility, located north of Jeddah, the main trade centre for Saudi Arabia.


click to enlarge

Towards what made for the most efficient and least efficient of the global port destinations, page fourteen of the Introduction to the report provides the snapshot of what puts the ports like those in the Middle East ahead of the rest of the pack for 2021.

With Port efficiency, adoption of new technologies and port performance the key contributing factors towards a higher placement.

click to enlarge

From the Overall rankings out of the 370 ports listed, Prince Rupert ranked at 344 in the Administrative approach, 339th in the Statistical approach.

By comparison, Vancouver was pegged in the third spot from the bottom of the list, with rankings of 368 for both categories.

When it comes to the North American rankings, only the Port of Halifax made it into the top ten of the 29 ports listed. St. John New Brunswick and the Port of Montreal hold the middle of the listings, while Prince Rupert and Vancouver are in the final tier of the rankings.

DP World Fairview Port Operations in Prince Rupert. The
Prince Rupert gateway is currently ranked second on the
North American West Coast for efficiency

(photo from PRPA website)

On the West coast with its focus on trade with Asia, Prince Rupert gains a more favourable focus, second overall for the Pacific coast ports, just below the Port of Seattle in the rankings

While the Port of Vancouver is ranked somewhat lower just ahead of Long Beach and Los Angeles which received the least favourable of rankings for he 2021 report.

Cargo Bottle necks and increasing dwell times at the West Coast ports account for the lower rankings, that as they see increased volumes of good shipped, while transportation challenges and increases in costs for shippers as a result of those factors contributed to the World Bank report findings.

While the upper reaches of the Global review perhaps are not in reach at the moment, putting forward a Prince Rupert advantage on the West coast and how to improve the North Coast results could be a theme of note for next week's Prince Rupert Port Authority Annual Public Meeting.

The Annual event, set for Wednesday June 15th at the Crest Hotel will provide a snapshot of where the port is at this year, as well as what challenges and the opportunities that PRPA officials have identified for future growth.



The Prince Rupert Port Authority is also including questions from the public prior to the June 15th meeting. To submit your questions or comments direct them to community@ruperport.com and include ‘APM question’ in the subject line.

More on Port or Prince Rupert themes can be explored here, an overview of the DP World Fairview Facility is available here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.

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