Dubai: DP World said on Wednesday it has reached an agreement with the Port of Prince Rupert in Canada over terms for a plan to expand the DP World Prince Rupert Fairview Container Terminal.
The Dubai-based ports operator said in a statement that the expansion plan will increase the annual throughput capacity at Canada’s second largest container terminal to 1.8 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) when complete in 2022.
Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem, chairman and chief executive officer of DP World, said Canada is an important part of the company’s global network. He added that the Prince Rupert port “plays a major role in enabling trade in the region and across the West Coast with rail connections inland to the rest of the country and the United States.”
The latest phase, phase 2B, of expansion of the project follows the 2017 completion of Fairview phase 2A, which increased the terminal’s capacity by 500,000 TEUs to its current capacity of 1.35 million TEUs.
DP World said that construction on the new phase will begin in mid-2019. There will be an initial gradual release of capacity to 1.6 million TEUs in 2020.
“This project will provide critical trade-enabling infrastructure for Canada’s West Coast, a timely response to forecasted growth in trans-Pacific trade and supportive of Canada’s efforts to diversify markets through new free trade agreements such as the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership),” said Bud Smith, chair of the Port of Prince Rupert.
