The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Port figures flavoured by stockpile
Salt storage adds to increase in non-container cargo
Halifax port container traffic was down in the third quarter despite a global logjam of ships waiting to unload their goods at North American ports.
But a spokesman for the Halifax Port Authority says the decrease in container throughput during the three months ending Sept. 30 was due to difficult comparisons to a shipping boom during the third quarter last year and, in part, because of the slowdown in international shipping activity.
“Last year was an interesting year for us, in that in the first half of the year we were affected by COVID in the sense that cargo coming from Southeast Asia, China in particular, was held up by the COVID situation there and then our manufacturing here and ports started to shut down during the first half and it wasn’t until Q3 when things really started to heat up,” said Lane Farguson, manager of media relations and communications at the port authority.
“At the same time, we saw industrial action in Montreal, so there was cargo being diverted through Halifax.
“So, Q3 2020 was a very strong year, and here we are comparing Q3 2021 against that. So it’s not a typical comparison; we’re comparing . . . what would be a good (quarter) otherwise to a very strong (quarter last year).”
In total, container activity was down 11.7 per cent in the third quarter this year. During the 13 weeks that ended Sept. 30, container movement in the port totalled 137,701 20-foot equivalent units. For the same three months in 2020, the port authority reported a total of 155,936 TEU throughput.
Third-quarter import numbers for containers were 69,323 TEUS (1.7 million tonnes) compared to 85,485 TEUS (1.3 million tonnes) during the same quarter last year, representing an 18.9 per cent reduction.
Export numbers in the quarter totalled 68,378 TEUS (1.51 million tonnes) compared to 70,451 TEUS (1.5 million tonnes), a decline of 2.9 per cent.
Year-to-date statistics show an 11.6 per cent increase in 2021, which represents a total throughput of 432,310 TEUS (3.2 million tonnes) during the first nine months, compared to 373,908 TEUS (2.8 million tonnes) during the first three quarters of 2020.
“Because of all the congestion that we’re seeing in the supply chains, and we’ve all come to realize in the last 21 months supply chains are linked, what happens at one port affects everything down the chain,” said Farguson.
“Here in Halifax, we don’t see the bunching issues that you’re seeing at other ports but what is happening is that vessels that might be calling here otherwise are being caught up in those issues and as a result, we’re not seeing those vessel calls or we’re seeing fewer of them.”
There have been a total of 25 blank sailing and omitted sailings during the third quarter, he said.
“And that is also affecting the numbers here in Halifax for Q3.”
Although the lack of congestion has attracted some additional business, Farguson said, it has not been enough to compensate for the cancelled and omitted sailings.
Non-containerized cargo imported during the quarter increased a massive 384 per cent, according to the port authority. The amount imported totalled 176,741 tonnes this quarter, compared to 36,515 tonnes during the same quarter last year.
The big increase in the amount of non-containerized cargo, said Farguson, is due to Windsor Salt Co. stockpiling salt to service its ice-melting contract with the Nova Scotia government during the winter. The salt was stockpiled in Halifax as the company negotiates a contract with miners at its operations in Pugwash, Cumberland County.
The amount of noncontainerized cargo exported through the port authority’s facilities was down 8.5 per cent in the quarter. A total of 63,344 tonnes was exported during the three months ended Sept. 30. During the same period last year, export tonnage totalled 69,206 tonnes.