b'SEPTEMBER 13 - 26, 2021CANADA PORTS 19(INVIGORATEScontin- growth to expand its vital role ued from page 18) asadeepwatertransloading many importers have quicklyhub for bulk trades with the realizedthatitisaviableGreat Lakes region.optiontoshipfromAsiaOverallcargotonnageat viaMontrealbecauseweoil-dominant Port Saint John are closer to the market andfor the year 2020 was 25.9 mil-closer to their customers andlion tons, a 2% increase over distribution centers. 2019.Inthecontainersector, TheMidwestremainsaunitshandledincreasedby significantmarketforthe15% to 79,179 TEUs.PortofMontreal.OurfluidFurtherbolsteringcon-andreliableoperationsandtaineractivityhasbeenthe railconnectionswithtworecentstart-upofaregular class one rail carriers CN &weeklycontainerservice CP explain whythe Port offromtheMediterraneanto Montreal continues to be theSaintJohn,followingan port of choice for our custom- agreementannouncedby ers the Midwest markets. Hapag-LloydandCanadian Ontheinfrastructurefront,Pacific, which has introduced arailoptimizationprojectanintermodalservicewith Port of Halifax this past May welcomed the maiden call of the CMA CGM Marco Polo, largest container vessel to call recentlybegan.TheportNorth Americas hinterland. at a Canadian port.alsolaunchedtheconstruc- For its part, the Port ofTEUs in 2019. First half 2021PortofHalifaxincludetheMarco Polo and Jules Verne), tion of a road link in the ViauHalifaxsawitstotalandstatistics pointed to a reboundcontinuationofultra-classthe new MSC service at PSA sector.TheobjectiveofthecontainercargodeclineinincontainertrafficthanksvesselcallsatPSAHalifaxHalifax, big ships over 8600 overpass project is to improve2020,butnottotheextenttothecontinuedstrengthincluding the largest containerTEU calling at Ceres-Halifax, road accessibility to the portthat was initially anticipated.which startedlate last year inshipsevertocallaCana- andthecontinuedsupport and alleviate trucking. Container volume added up toinbound cargo from Asia. dianport(the16,022TEU(INVIGORATEScontin-Meanwhile,theMon- 507,185 TEUs versus 547,000PositivefactorsforthecontainershipsCMACGMued on page 27)trealPortAuthority(MPA) ismovingforwardinthe development of its $750-mil-lionContrecoeurcontainer terminalproject.Thefacil-itywillhaveamaximum annual capacity of 1.15 mil-lion 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs)uponplannedcom-pletion in 2025.Theexpansionofthe PortofMontrealatContre-coeur reached a very important milestone in the past several monthswiththefavourable ministerialdecisionforthe project to be carried out, said PaulBird,theMPAsVice-President, Contrecoeur.And this past July marked another key new phase when 16,000+ TEU vessel capacitythe MPA announced the launch-ing of a national and international procurementprocess.Industry Ocean rail to Central players in Canada and abroad have been invited to submit a Canada and US Midwestproposal to enter into a long-termdesign-build-finance-operate-maintainagreement. 19 weekly global callsThis includes local operators, Termont and Montreal Gate-wayTerminals(MGT)who Open berth windowstookpartinthepreliminary discussions. Afterpostingatonnage Low dwell timesincreaseforthefourthcon-secutiveyearin2019,the Port of Quebec saw its over-all volume drop by about 8% in 2020 to 27 million tons. On theotherhand,whileliquid bulk declined, solid bulk per-formedstrongly(up35%) thanks to a marked increase in the agro-food sector. The trendline in 2021 points to a return of growth figures. RESPONSIVE.However, the ports ambi-tion to enter the St. LawrenceOPEN AND containertradesrecently received a major setback. TheFLUID BERTHS.federalgovernmentrejected theQuebecPort Authoritys (QPA)proposedLaurentiaEFFICIENT AND RELIABLE.containerterminalproject, bluntlyopiningthatitdoes not meet the standards of eco- We are Canadas Ultra Atlantic Gatewaynomic development that fully respecttheenvironment.PortofHalifax.caThis means the port must re-focus on other infrastructure'