Vancouver hit by new backlog woes

Canada’s largest port, Vancouver, continues to struggle with a shortage of railcars to handle volumes of cargo arriving from Asia, with dwell times for boxes at facilities averaging 10 days. Various new factors are limiting progress in reducing backlogs at Vancouver’s Deltaport and Vanterm container terminals, Lloyd’s List reported in London. Adding to existing congestion problems, originally provoked by exceptionally bad winter weather, have been several railway derailments in the past few days on the western networks of CN and Canadian Pacific Railway. Another has been the slow recovery from the recently ended two-week strike by CN conductors and yard service employees. &#8220At best, we are looking at early April before the backlog is cleared,&#8221 Brian Yamaguchi, trade development manager of Vancouver Port Authority, said. &#8220The on-dock volume at Deltaport alone remains approximately 6,000 containers.&#8221 The steamship lines, terminal operators, railways, trucking companies, port officials and other stakeholders are continuing to work together to implement options that will utilise all gateway facilities. Meanwhile, the decision by a number of ocean carriers to impose a &#8220congestion surcharge&#8221 effective from March 13 for Vancouver-destined cargo has created considerable controversy among Canadian freight forwarders. In a circular on March 1, Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL imposed an additional US$80 per teu and US$100 per feu for cargo to Vancouver. For inland and mini-landbridge cargo surcharges of US$240 and US$300 will be imposed. This prompted a sharp attack from the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association. When Hanjin Shipping and other carriers followed suit, CIFFA released an unidentified freight forwarder’s comment:: &#8220The railways and truckers hold us all hostage, shippers and receivers, as they do the ocean carriers. So how can we criticise an effort by a carrier to cover costs over which it has no control?&#8221

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