Five Mega-Projects For China/BC

Five Mega-Projects For China/BC 

The big build westward

Canada entered a new era last year when China unseated the United Kingdom as our largest overseas trading partner. Exports to China have nearly doubled since 2008, reaching $20 billion last year. This caps a 50-year trend: while Canada’s primary trade relationship remains with the United States, our overseas trade is shifting westward toward faster-growing and more populous Asia. This logistical pivot from Atlantic to Pacific is proving neither cheap nor easy, especially in terms of physical infrastructure. Road, rail, container and bulk terminal expansions worth at least $11 billion are planned or under construction. The currently proposed investment in oil and natural gas export infrastructure exceeds $10 billion and $50 billion, respectively. Demand for more shipping capacity is coming not just from Canada, but from American exporters and importers looking to route supply chains through Vancouver and Prince Rupert to reach Asian markets faster. These mega-projects are fraught with challenges ranging from new engineering demands to public opposition.But to look at any one pipeline or container-port controversy in isolation is to miss the big picture of inexorable change in the world economy and Canada’s place within it. After all, the push to expand North America’s Pacific gateway has barely begun.

Fairview Container Terminal

CN Rail spent years trying to sell the idea of shipping containers through the port of Prince Rupert, which is 2,000 km closer to Shanghai than any other transcontinental rail terminus. It took a while, but customers in Canada and the U.S. Midwest came around—big time. The Fairview Container Terminal opened in 2007, and already owner Maher Terminals plans to quadruple its capacity to two million container units per year by 2020, making it Canada’s second-largest container port after Vancouver.

2 million: projected annual container unit capacity by 2020

 

Richardson Grain Terminal

Winnipeg-based Richardson International started work in April on a $120-million expansion of this agricultural export terminal in North Vancouver. With the addition of two storage annexes, the terminal will be capable of exporting five million tonnes of grain and oilseeds per year, up from three million today.

5 million tonnes: projected grain and oilseeds to be exported annually

 

Westridge Marine Terminal

What little oil Canada exports to Asia today makes its way from Edmonton through the 60-year-old Trans-Mountain Pipeline to the Westridge Marine Terminal on Burrard Inlet in Burnaby, B.C. In May, owner Kinder Morgan submitted a project description—prelude to an application—to expand the pipeline from its current (oversubscribed) capacity of 300,000 barrels a day to 890,000 barrels. The $5.4-billion expansion would see the number of tankers docking at Westridge increase from five per month now (most bound for California) to 34, with the balance headed for Asian refineries.

580%: projected increase in tanker traffic

 

Ridley Island

As Asian demand for metallurgical coal, petroleum coke and grain has soared, the bulk-handling terminals on Ridley Island, just south of Prince Rupert, are planning to double coal-handling capacity to 24 million tonnes a year by 2020. Canpotex Ltd. has plans to build a $400-million potash export terminal here, and in May BG Group filed plans for a $16-billion plant that would export 21 million tonnes of liquid natural gas (LNG) per year—a quarter of Canada’s gas production today—requiring partner Spectra Energy to build an $8-billion pipeline from northeastern B.C.

21 million tonnes: projected annual capacity at Ridley’s LNG terminal

 

Roberts Bank Superport

The Roberts Bank Superport south of Vancouver already boasts Canada’s largest container terminal and the largest coal terminal in North America. And it’s getting bigger: the Westshore coal facility recently completed a five-year expansion to handle as much as 33 million tonnes of coal annually. The Deltaport terminal is doubling its capacity to four million shipping container units by 2020. Another $300 million is going into rail access to the facility, and a $1.3-billion divided highway specifically for trucks, the South Fraser Perimeter Road, is being built to connect the port to the Trans-Canada Highway.

$2 Billion: the cost of doubling container unit capacity