'Express trade corridor' to Asia
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Wendy Stueck
New container terminal in Prince Rupert banking on changing shipping patterns as global warming keeps Northwest Passage ice free
When they formally open a new container terminal in Prince Rupert recently, officials will trumpet an "express trade corridor" that shaves more than two days from shipping times between Asia and North America.
But with the ribbons barely cut at the British Columbia port's Fairview Terminal, another shipping route - an ice-free Northwest Passage - is drawing attention for its potential to transform global shipping patterns and lop thousands of kilometres from conventional routes.
"We have a situation, with global warming, that the Northwest Passage is open," panelist Joseph Spears said Monday at the Canada Maritime Conference in Vancouver, adding that the route could become "the next Panama Canal."
The shipping distance between Asia and Europe via the Northwest Passage is about 9,000 kilometres less than through Panama.
With the prospect of commercial traffic through the route, regulation of Arctic shipping would become a complex issue, Mr. Spears predicted. Canada's Arctic sovereignty policies are likely to bump up against those of the United States, which considers the Northwest Passage an international strait.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper in July announced plans for up to eight new patrol ships and a deep water Arctic port.
The jurisdictional debates will be playing out against the backdrop of rising volumes of container trade and the constant pressure on shipping lines to provide faster service.
Those factors explain the appeal of Prince Rupert's new terminal, which has already signed up China Ocean Shipping Company as its first ocean carrier.
An additional container port to back up the busy Port of Vancouver "really increases and enhances our capacity to ship goods back and forth," Werner Knittel, vice-president of the B.C. Division of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), said in an interview yesterday.
The CME has not studied the potential of the Northwest Passage but is interested in any options that provide for faster shipping, Mr. Knittel said.
There is no commercial traffic through the Northwest Passage now but cruise ships, research vessels and other craft use the route.
In years past, regular shipping through an ice-free Northwest Passage would have been seen as "pie in the sky," Mr. Spears said, but ice has been disappearing more quickly than expected, making the route feasible.
That could have an impact on the Port of Churchill, which is located in Manitoba on the west coast of Hudson Bay and is Canada's only Arctic port.
Churchill's shipping season has been edging into November from a former cutoff date of late October, said Bill Drew, executive director of Churchill Gateway Development Corp. and a speaker on the conference panel about Arctic shipping.
While eyeing opportunities that ice-free shipping could provide, the port is worried about global warming's impact on the region's wildlife and the environment, Mr. Drew said.
Churchill's famed polar bears have been dwindling in number as a result of shrinking ice packs, researchers say.
The U.S. Geological Survey said last week that future reduction of sea ice in the Arctic could result in a loss of two-thirds of the world's polar bear population within 50 years.
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Internet
New container terminal in Prince Rupert banking on changing shipping patterns as global warming keeps Northwest Passage ice free
When they formally open a new container terminal in Prince Rupert recently, officials will trumpet an "express trade corridor" that shaves more than two days from shipping times between Asia and North America.
But with the ribbons barely cut at the British Columbia port's Fairview Terminal, another shipping route - an ice-free Northwest Passage - is drawing attention for its potential to transform global shipping patterns and lop thousands of kilometres from conventional routes.
"We have a situation, with global warming, that the Northwest Passage is open," panelist Joseph Spears said Monday at the Canada Maritime Conference in Vancouver, adding that the route could become "the next Panama Canal."
The shipping distance between Asia and Europe via the Northwest Passage is about 9,000 kilometres less than through Panama.
With the prospect of commercial traffic through the route, regulation of Arctic shipping would become a complex issue, Mr. Spears predicted. Canada's Arctic sovereignty policies are likely to bump up against those of the United States, which considers the Northwest Passage an international strait.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper in July announced plans for up to eight new patrol ships and a deep water Arctic port.
The jurisdictional debates will be playing out against the backdrop of rising volumes of container trade and the constant pressure on shipping lines to provide faster service.
Those factors explain the appeal of Prince Rupert's new terminal, which has already signed up China Ocean Shipping Company as its first ocean carrier.
An additional container port to back up the busy Port of Vancouver "really increases and enhances our capacity to ship goods back and forth," Werner Knittel, vice-president of the B.C. Division of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME), said in an interview yesterday.
The CME has not studied the potential of the Northwest Passage but is interested in any options that provide for faster shipping, Mr. Knittel said.
There is no commercial traffic through the Northwest Passage now but cruise ships, research vessels and other craft use the route.
In years past, regular shipping through an ice-free Northwest Passage would have been seen as "pie in the sky," Mr. Spears said, but ice has been disappearing more quickly than expected, making the route feasible.
That could have an impact on the Port of Churchill, which is located in Manitoba on the west coast of Hudson Bay and is Canada's only Arctic port.
Churchill's shipping season has been edging into November from a former cutoff date of late October, said Bill Drew, executive director of Churchill Gateway Development Corp. and a speaker on the conference panel about Arctic shipping.
While eyeing opportunities that ice-free shipping could provide, the port is worried about global warming's impact on the region's wildlife and the environment, Mr. Drew said.
Churchill's famed polar bears have been dwindling in number as a result of shrinking ice packs, researchers say.
The U.S. Geological Survey said last week that future reduction of sea ice in the Arctic could result in a loss of two-thirds of the world's polar bear population within 50 years.
.............
Internet