Last look at Port Performance for 2023 highlights successes and challenges of the year

The last data release from the Prince Rupert Port Authority for 2023 came earlier this month, with the Year to Date stats for Port Terminals to the end of November and as has been the case for the year, some of the Gateway facilities have had a very good year, while a few others have faced challenges.

Among those to find strong results for the year to November 2023 include, Prince Rupert Grain and Trigon Terminals, with both showing impressive gains from this time last year.

The Coal and Gas export terminals of Trigon's footprint leading the way out of 2023, followed closely by exports to global markets from Prince Rupert Grain.

Strong performance was also found in Harbour shipments, those would be raw logs and movements of goods through roll on roll of operations along the waterfront, the totals to November nearly double that of last year.

The Cruise Industry and BC Ferries transits also delivered improved volumes of passengers through the Port in 2023.

The City of Prince Rupert's footprint on the waterfront, that of Watson Island saw a slight decline for shipments from the Pembina facility over the last year, with the November to November numbers down close to 11,500 tonnes from year to year

The two terminals that had the most challenges for the year included the Westview Wood Pellet Terminal  and the DP World Container Terminal at Fairview.

For the Drax Facility shipments are down about 200,000 tonnes from this time in 2022.

While the region's largest economic engine and employer, the DP World Facility has had a very challenging 2023. The throughput at Fairview down over 3 million tonnes, the impact found on the employment board for the ILWU workforce at the facility.

While the challenging times for the container shipping industry is of some note for the local economy, overall, the Port's final numbers heading towards the end of the year are still  to that far away from a year ago, thanks to the increases noted above.

Heading into the final month of production for the Port footprint, their Year to Date numbers are down 1.2 million tonnes

The final statistical review for 2023 will come with the release of the December volumes in early January.

2024 will see work to improve the performance for DP World be among some of the priorities, as well as bring the introduction of a fuelling service for vessels making calls on Prince Rupert, that through the opening of the Wolverine Facility which we noted earlier this week.

As well, a number of expansion projects continue to find momentum, from Logistics Terminal to new shipment projects for bulk fuels.

There may soon be changes in the Board of Directors make up as well, with Labour one step closer to having a seat following progress for Bill C-33 in Ottawa, that legislation will continue on its path forward in 2024.

Also of note and worth watching will be the progress of and outcome towards legal actions between the Port and Trigon over the plans of the latter to diversify its operations into alternative energy products.

Many of the themes of the year made for a one hour plus presentation to Prince Rupert City Council earlier this month, the session providing a look at both the challenging times and the prospects for the years ahead.

Along with those observations was an expansive Question and Answer period on the impact of the Port on the community and relations between the City and the largest economic  force in the region.

You can review that discussion here.

More notes on themes related to Port Development can be explored through our archive page.