The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority announced last week that a temporary storage site for empty shipping containers has been set up in Richmond, a part of Metro Vancouver.
In mid-November 2021, severe flooding in British Columbia cut off rail services connecting the Port of Vancouver to national supply chains for eight days.
“As partners throughout the Port of Vancouver continue work to clear supply chain backlogs in the wake of November’s flooding, this new container storage site adds valuable capacity to support activities at Canada’s largest port, which in turn supports local and national supply chains,” said Robin Silvester, president and CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
On November 24, the federal government announced it would contribute $4.1m under the National Trade Corridors Fund to a port authority-led project to prepare an undeveloped parcel of federal port land for the handling and storage of empty containers.
The site has been prepared in three phases, with the first phase operational in January. The port authority continues to advance construction on the site and expects to see the full site completed in early March.
The port authority selected Coast2000 Terminals and Euro Asia, two integrated intermodal service companies and current port tenants within the Fraser Richmond Industrial Lands, to operate the temporary site.
Upon completion, the storage area will remain operational until July 2022. The site is part of federal port lands and is intended to be used for terminal development in the future.
