Speaker: New Port in Canada Could Expand Northland Trade

Sep. 9–The expanded reach of Canadian National Railway Co. in the development of an essentially new port in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, could lead to future trade opportunities in the Northland, a company official told a Duluth audience Thursday.

Prince Rupert is expected to enhance North American trade with China and generate an additional $250 million to $300 million in revenue for the railroad company, Paul Butcher, senior manager of marketing, told a luncheon audience of more than 100 at the Northern Networks Trade Conference at Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

The annual conference is intended to give business people from northwestern Ontario, northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin a chance to learn about international trade.

CN owns 19,300 miles of track in the U.S. and Canada that extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the northern U.S.-Canada border to the Gulf of Mexico.

A decade ago, CN was government owned. Since changing to a publicly traded corporation, it has acquired several American railroad companies. Last year, it purchased the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railway Co., Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Co. and Pittsburgh & Conneaut Dock Co.

“In 10 short years, CN has completely transformed its business model,” Richard Stewart said while introducing Butcher. Stewart is director of transportation and logistics research at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

The $170 million Prince Rupert port development — paid for by the Canadian government, CN, the local port authority and Maher Terminals, which will run operations — is expected to be operational in early 2007.

It will run year-round and offers the shortest North America to China route of any West Coast port, Butcher said.

“We can basically save two days” for shipments from Hong Kong to Chicago, he said.

There is opportunity for businesses in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario in development of the Canadian port, he said, noting that iron ore from Minnesota was shipped from Prince Rupert to China last year.

Butcher also noted that a large number of empty containers return to Asia, which could provide a means for American businesses to get their goods across the Pacific through Prince Rupert.

Congestion at rail centers such as Chicago has spurred CN to establish terminals to transfer to other railroads in Memphis and other less crowded cities for greater efficiency, he said.

Without an intermodal hub in the Duluth-Superior area — a facility that could move containerized cargo from rail to trucks or ships — the opportunities for handling such goods are limited, Butcher said after his speech.

The idea has been tried and revived, but hasn’t taken wing.

In 1973, a container crane was installed at Duluth’s Clure Marine Terminal, but it was used very little. Eventually, the crane was sold and moved.

In the early 1990s, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway announced plans to establish an intermodal hub in Duluth but decided against it.

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