mar,21 -- PORT Metro Vancouver (PMV) is getting closer to realising its goal of building a new two million TEU terminal to cater for an expected boom in west coast volumes after it revealed that it expects to enter the project for environmental consideration and approval next year.
    "The process can take four years and construction could start by the end of the decade with an opening by the early 2020s. We expect container trade to double for the west coast of Canada, tripling by 2030," port CEO Robin Silvester said, reports London's Containerisation International.
    Drivers are Canada's population spurt and continuing export growth to Asia, resulting in expectation that cargo volumes will increase four per cent a year over the medium term.
    But Mr Silvester said that the first focus of the port had been maximising existing capacity and de-bottlenecking the railroad facilities to cope with volume growth.
    Nevertheless, the planned new terminal - dubbed Terminal 2 - has many environmental considerations attached to it due to the environmentally sensitive nature of the area where it is due to be built.
    Notwithstanding these hurdles Mr Silvester said that he was confident that the process would be approved, as the port had done remedial and environmental mitigation work for previous port projects and was working closely with environmental groups.
The port expects overall cargo volume to grow four per cent this year compared to last year when laden volumes climbed two per cent to 2.2 million TEU, with loaded inbound rising one per cent to 1.2 million TEU, and full exports jumped four per cent to 999,725 TEU.

(Source:Shippingazette)