This year will seem kind of the same as last
If 2020 taught us anything, it is that making predictions about the year ahead is a fool's errand. Last January, nobody foresaw strikes, blockades or the pandemic, yet they all had major effects on the port.
Entering 2021, container lines are enjoying record volumes and freight rates, with the cost to ship a container more than double what it was last year. Backlogs of goods waiting to leave Asia have led to a shortage of containers there, which has caused problems for the Canadian agricultural sector, unable to get containers to ship products to Asia. A line ships the empties back, keeping pace with the higher-value goods coming to the west. They would rather not tie up a container for weeks with an eastbound product.
Business is so good, in fact, that privately held ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., based in Israel and in 2015 very close to bankruptcy, will be issuing an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
Zim is the 10th-largest container line but does over half its business in transpacific trade, making it attractive to investors wanting a piece of those profits. ZIM calls on Halifax twice weekly and was the first line to break the 10,000 20-foot equivalent unit threshold with the call of ZIM Rotterdam in 2017.
Last year allowed Halifax to take the record for the largest container ship to call in Canada, with the arrival of the 15,072 teu CMA-CGM Brazil. That ship actually set the record all the way down the East Coast of North America. Additional ships of that class have since called, positioning Halifax for even larger ships in the future. The Halifax size record has been bested every year since 2015.
CP and the Port of Saint John have signed a deal to add Hapag Lloyd as a weekly caller. This will likely siphon business from Montreal.
The Port of Halifax announced the 2020 cruise schedule and two weeks later postponed and then canceled it due to restrictions placed by the federal government.
Cruise lines are taking bookings for 2021, with over 200 ships scheduled to call in Halifax between May 1 and
Nov. 3. It seems unlikely any of those ships will actually call this year, as the conditions surrounding the coronavirus haven't changed and Transport Canada will likely announce another ban.
Despite that, a restructured One Ocean Expeditions thinks it will be able to go cruising off the East Coast of Canada this summer, based out of Sydney. One Ocean's filings with the British Columbia courts indicated the planned vessel would be permissible under the cruise ship ban due to its small size. The ship hasn't been named, no Itineraries have been published, and I am doubtful this will get off the ground.
Some changes to harbour infrastructure are also in the works.
Develop Nova Scotia is adding to the end of the Museum wharf, which is home to CSS
Acadia. The ship will remain at the pier with additional berthing space. This work is in addition to the refurbishment of the Pilot wharf and the replacement of the Svitzer wharf.
Imperial Oil will also be upgrading Oil Dock No. 3. With the refinery decommissioned and the facility converted to a terminal, this is the most frequently used wharf there.
A new truck-handling facility will be built at the eastern end of Fairview Cove. The access will feature facilities for container inspection for the border services agency, replacing the operation in Burnside. It will also eventually handle containers for PSA Halifax, with a train shuttling the boxes between terminals.