The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) was created in 2007 when the earlier Fraser River Port Authority, the North Fraser Port Authority, and the Vancouver Port Authority were combined. Created by the Canadian government, the VFPA is a financially self-sufficient, non-shareholder corporation that reports to the federal Minister of Transport. A board of directors representing government and industry governs the VFPA, focusing on port users' needs and promoting long-term growth and competitiveness. The VFPA markets itself as Port Metro Vancouver.
Port Metro Vancouver is tasked with assuring the safe efficient movement of cargo and marine traffic within the port. It conducts marine patrols, inspects ships, permits dangerous goods, provides navigational and safety advice, and plans events. Port Metro Vancouver works with stakeholders that include nearby municipalities and federal agencies. It is integrated with worldwide transportation networks.
The Port Metro Vancouver Harbour Master is responsible for safe navigation within the port. With safety and efficiency as the highest priorities, the Port Metro Vancouver Harbour Master plans, tracks, and works closely with the marine community. Harbour Patrol Crews monitor marine activities and board vessels all day every day.
In 2011, Port Metro Vancouver served over 3000 vessels carrying 122.5 million tons of cargo, including 84.5 million tons of bulk cargoes, 16.0 million tons of breakbulk, 21.7 million tons of containerized cargo in 2.5 million TEUs and 298.1 thousand automobiles. Port Metro Vancouver also welcomed 663.4 thousand cruise passengers. Foreign cargoes of 95.6 million tons included 13.4 million tons of imports and 82.1 million tons of exports. Port Metro Vancouver also handled 26.9 million tons of domestic cargo.
Bulk cargoes through Port Metro Vancouver in 2011 included coal (32.7 million tons); chemicals, metals, and minerals (9.4 million tons); fertilizers (10.6 million tons); grain, specialty crops, and feed (15.5 million tons); petroleum products (6.7 million tons); forest products (8.1 million tons); machinery, vehicles, construction, and materials (293.6 thousand tons); and processed food products (1.1 million tons).
In 2011, Port Metro Vancouver breakbulk cargoes of 16.0 million tons included logs (7.3 million tons), miscellaneous goods (4.2 million tons), paper and paperboard (1.2 million tons), and woodpulp (1.4 million tons).
Among containerized imports of 21.7 million tons in 1.3 million TEUs entering Port Metro Vancouver were household goods (2.9 million tons); construction and materials (1.2 million tons); and smaller volumes of machinery; industrial, auto, and vehicle parts; produce; basic metals; beverages; chemical industry products; wood products; paper and paperboard; and meat, fish, and poultry.
Containerized exports of 12.9 million tons in 1.1 million TEUs leaving Port Metro Vancouver included woodpulp (2.4 million tons); lumber (4.1 million tons); specialty crops (1.7 million tons); and smaller amounts of basic metals; meat, fish, and poultry; chemical industry products; waste paper, paper and paperboard; animal feed; and sheets, panels, and boards.
In 2011, Port Metro Vancouver handled a total of 298.1 thousand autos, almost all of which were imports. The leading supplier of autos was Japan (150.1 thousand). Other auto imports came from South Korea (91.5 thousand), the United States (20.0 thousand), Germany (5.4 thousand), Mexico (4.3 thousand), Sweden (485), and the United Kingdom (485). All but one outbound auto went to Japan (32).
Almost 200 cruise voyages stopped at Port Metro Vancouver in 2011 carrying 663.4 thousand passengers. Of those, 328.7 thousand passengers embarked, and 323.6 thousand passengers disembarked.
Port Metro Vancouver contains 17 terminals handling bulk cargoes that range from coal, potash, sulfur, chemicals, and fuel oil to grains. Bulk cargoes represent 75% of Port Metro Vancouver's throughput each year, and it is the busiest port in North America for foreign export volume. Port Metro Vancouver's bulk terminals offer modern efficient facilities and operators with extensive experience.
Port Metro Vancouver contains facilities at four areas: Burrard Inlet East, the North Shore, Roberts Bank, and the South Shore. The Burrard Inlet East in Port Metro Vancouver is home to privately-owned operations that include Imperial Oil IOCO, Kinder Morgan, Canexus Chemicals, Pacific Coast Terminals, PetroCanada, Shellburn, and Stanovan. Imperial Oil IOCO handles fuel oils and marine gas oil at two berths for barges and coastal tankers up to 15 thousand DWT and up to 135 meters long with maximum draft of 8.8 meters. Imperial Oil does not serve third party carriers.
Port Metro Vancouver started a planning process called Port 2050 in 2010 to develop a strategic vision for the future to guide businesses priorities, identify new initiatives, and transform Port Metro Vancouver operations for the 21st Century. The planning process is combines a series of expert panels, group discussions, and scenario-building workshops with research and analyses.
- Container terminals
Deltaport is the largest container terminal and the largest employer in Port Metro Vancouver. Located at Roberts Bank, the Deltaport terminal can handle the largest modern container ships and has container cranes that serve super post-Panamax vessels.
Terminal Systems Inc. has a long-term lease agreement with Port Metro Vancouver to operate Deltaport, which serves containers and project cargoes. The 85-hectare facility contains three berths that total 1100 meters (3609 feet) long with alongside depth of 15.8 meters (51.8 feet). The third berth at Deltaport in Port Metro Vancouver was opened in 2010, increasing the terminal's container-handling capacity to 600 thousand TEUs.
The Deltaport container yard has capacity for 24 thousand full TEUs, and the newest berth at this Port Metro Vancouver terminal brought container storage area to 20 hectares. The facility has an on-dock intermodal yard and is served by eight thousand-meter (3500-foot) rail tracks, for a total of 8.5 thousand meters (28 thousand feet) of intermocal tracks.
The Deltaport Container Yards cover 251 hectares with capacity for 41,250 TEUs stacked three high. It includes 1020 reefer points with 440-volt electricity. Port Metro Vancouver's Deltaport has ten gantry cranes with capacity for loads from 50 to 75 tons. Port Metro Vancouver's Deltaport also has 36, a multi-trailer system that includes 27 triple trailers and 77 single trailers. There are six toplifts in Port Metro Vancouver that include 14 reach stackers and 12 empty handlers. Deltaport also has 77 single terminal tractors and 27 MTSs.
The Centerm terminal in Burrard Inlet handles both breakbulk cargoes and containers in Port Metro Vancouver. Located in the inner harbor, Centerm is served by three railways and has immediate access to the nation's highway system.
DP World Canada operates the 31-hectare Centerm facility under a long-term lease with Port Metro Vancouver. Breakbulk cargoes include forest products and project and breakbulk cargoes. Centerm contains two berths with alongside depths of 15.5 meters (50.9 feet). Centerm is Port Metro Vancouver's key gateway for trans-Pacific trade between Asia and the Pacific Northwest. The terminal serves the local British Columbia market, but it is also connected by intermodal rail to Eastern Canada and the United States' Midwest. The terminal is served by the Canadian Pacific and Canada National railways.
DP World in Port Metro Vancouver leads the industry in applying advanced technology to the cargo-handling services at Centerm. This includes GPS-tracked gantries and optical character readers (OCR) used at the truck and rail gates and on the gantry cranes. In 2007, DP World Vancouver became the first North American container terminal to receive the highest independent security certification (ISO/PAS 28000).
Port Metro Vancouver's 31-hectare Vanterm is a modern, fully-equipped twin-berth container terminal with a five-track on-dock intermodal rail yard. Vanterm is operated by TSI Terminal Systems Inc. under a long-term agreement with Port Metro Vancouver.
Port Metro Vancouver's Vanterm handles containerized and project cargoes and bulk oils. The berths are 619 meters (2030 feet) long with alongside depths from 15.2 to 15.5 meters (49.9 to 50.9 feet). The container yard can accommodate seven thousand full TEUs. Port Metro Vancouver's Vanterm includes 12 hectares of container yards with 5-high, 7-wide stacks and total capacity for more than 10.3 thousand TEUs. It includes 360 reefer points with 440 voltage.
The Vanterm terminal in Port Metro Vancouver also has one berth for conventional cargos. The berth is 183 meters (600 feet) long with alongside depth of 15.2 meters (49.9 feet).
Port Metro Vancouver's Vanterm terminal is equipped with six high-speed Super post-Panamax dock gantries, a six-track on-dock intermodal rail yard with over 2.7 kilometers (9600 feet) of trackage. Vanterm is equipped with six gantry cranes with capacity for from 50 to 75 tons, 20 transtainers, 59 single trailers, 16 toplifts, two reach stackers, eight empty handlers, and 45 terminal tractors.
Fraser Surrey Docks LP is a multi-purpose marine terminal in Port Metro Vancouver that has been operating since 1962. This Port Metro Vancouver terminal has six berths that can accommodate vessels with draft to 11.7 meters (38.4 feet). Fraser Surrey Docks support from 300 to 400 ocean-borne vessels to Panamax size each year.
Fraser Surrey Docks terminal in Port Metro Vancouver has 53 hectares of yard area, four 80-ton container cranes, and 3.1 hectares of covered storage. There are over three thousand meters (10 thousand feet) of rail track within the Fraser Surrey Docks yard, and the facility is near two main highway routes that avoid heavy city traffic. Barge traffic is served at a separate berth with an hydraulically-operated ramp.
In 2007, Port Metro Vancouver's Fraser Surrey Docks handled more than 185 thousand TEUs of containerized cargo. The terminal container yard can accommodate more than eight thousand containers and has plug-in points for refrigerated containers. This Port Metro Vancouver terminal includes a Container Freight System and transloading capacity. The Cargo Management System manages the complete inventory of containers and offers customers secure on-line access to data.
Fraser Surrey Docks also handles export-packaged lumber as well as steel plate, coil, wire, beam, rod, other structural products, and project cargoes. Pacific Rim Stevedoring supports this Port Metro Vancouver terminal. The Fraser Surrey Docks terminal is connected by rail to the Canadian National Railway, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Southern Rail of British Columbia. In addition to the terminal rails, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority maintains almost 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) of rail car holding tracks adjacent to the terminal.
The Fraser Surrey Docks in Port Metro Vancouver has a shed (Shed Two) with a covered truck bay that can accommodate three trucks at the same time and as many as 30 trucks during a day shift. Additional truck-handling capacity can also be activated. Port Metro Vancouver's Fraser Surrey Docks contain warehouse and transfer facilities. Warehouses for pulp and paper meet the highest standards for prevent damage or contamination of products.
- Bulk and breakbulk terminals
Bulk (both dry and liquid) cargoes account for about 66% of Port Metro Vancouver's annual tonnage. Western Canada has a wide variety of commodities for export, and Port Metro Vancouver has frequent sailings and a variety of maritime and transportation services to support the range of cargoes.
With capacity to handle 17 million metric tons of cargo per year, Port Metro Vancouver's Neptune Bulk Terminals is the biggest multi-product bulk terminal in North America. Located in the inner harbor, the 29-hectare facility provides loading/unloading services and storage for a range of bulk commodities that include exports of thermal and metallurgical coal, potash, animal feed, specialty grains, bulk fertilizers, and canola oil.
Port Metro Vancouver's Neptune Bulk Terminals' Berth 1 is 230 meters long with alongside depth of 15.24 meters and can accommodate vessels to 180 thousand DWT. Berth 2 is 230 meters long with alongside depth of 13.7 meters and can accommodate Panamax vessels to 85 thousand DWT. Berth 3 is 100 meters long with alongside depth of 13 meters and can accommodate vessels to 65 thousand DWT. Berth 1 has storage capacity for 600 thousand tons of coal. Berth 2 has capacity to store 300 thousand tons of potash and 19 thousand tons of canola oil. These Port Metro Vancouver facilities are served by eight kilometers of continuous loop trackage.
Westshore Terminals at Port Metro Vancouver is the leading coal export facility in Canada and the biggest dry bulk terminal on the western coast of the Americas. Located at Port Metro Vancouver's Roberts Bank in Delta, the 40-hectare Westshore Terminals handles coal and coke. Berth 1 is 350 meters long with alongside depth of 22.9 meters and can accommodate vessels up to 260 thousand DWT. Berth 2 is 263 meters long with alongside depth of 20.8 meters and can accommodate vessels to 150 thousand DWT. The facility has two loop tracks and two rotary rail car dumpers as well as an extensive high-speed conveyor system.
Canexus Chemicals operates a chemical terminal on the north shore of Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Inlet. The facility produces chlorine, sodium hydroxide, and hydrochloric acid and is committed to the Canadian Chemical Producers Association's "Responsible Care" initiative. Operated by Canexus Chemicals Canada, this Port Metro Vancouver facility handles imports of bulk sea salt and exports of caustic soda and sodium chlorate at a 152-meter long berth and mooring floats with alongside depth of 10.6 meters. The facility has salt storage capacity to store 22 thousand tons in tanks as well as surface pad storage for 61 thousand tons. The terminal is served by 7.6 meters of yard rail.
Port Metro Vancouver's 9.3-hectare Fibreco Terminal is one of the world's biggest and most modern woodchip handling facilities. With capacity for two million tons of bulk wood chips per year, the berth can accommodate vessels to 265 meters in length with maximum draft of 11.5 meters. This Port Metro Vancouver terminal has storage capacity for 240 tons of wood chips. The facility can accept bulk cargoes from vessels with gear-to-onshore conveying systems. It can unload wood chips from truck, rail, barge, and ship. It can load cargoes onto barges and ships.
The James Richardson International (JRI) terminal in Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Inlet exports an average three million metric tons of grain every year, including exports of canola and cereal grains going to Pacific Rim countries. The JRI terminal in Port Metro Vancouver handles wheat, canola, rye, barley, feed products, and flax. Its berth is 180 meters long with alongside depth of 15.24 meters, and it has capacity to store 108 thousand tons of grain.
Western Stevedoring operates Port Metro Vancouver's Lynnterm facility, the Pacific Northwest center for consolidating forest products, steel, and breakbulk cargoes. The terminal handles wood pulp, paper, lumber, logs, steel products, panel products, machinery, and project cargo. The facility has seven all-concrete berths a total of 1516 meters long with alongside depths from 12 to 15 meters at low water.
The 59-hectare Lynnterm facility in Port Metro Vancouver contains 81.7 thousand square meters of covered storage and 380 thousand square meters of open storage space. Its eight warehouses are used for forest products, general cargo, and steel. The Canadian National Railway provides direct service and connections to all major railroads, and the facility contains about 9 kilometers of tracks linking the berth to storage facilities.
Located on Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Inlet, the farmer-directed Alliance Grain Terminal is one of the biggest grain-handling businesses in Canada. Located in Burnaby, Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Products Terminal handles petroleum products. Its operator, Suncor, is one of the country's largest integrated oil and gas companies.
The Cargill Terminal is located on Burrard Inlet's northern shore. This Port Metro Vancouver grain terminal handles wheat, barley, canola, durum, and grain by-products. Its operator, Cargill Limited, is one of the biggest agricultural merchandiser and processor in Canada.
The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in Port Metro Vancouver handles wheat, canola, durum, barley, and grain by-products at two berths. Each berth is 230 meters long with alongside depth of 15.5 meters, and the facility has capacity to store 240 thousand tons of grain.
Port Metro Vancouver Wharves handle breakbulk and bulk cargoes. Operated by Kinder Morgan Canada Terminals Limited, these wharves in Port Metro Vancouver's inner harbor have capacity to handle up to 10 million tons of cargo per year. The primary breakbulk cargoes are pulp and paper. Bulk cargoes include mineral concentrates, sulfur and fertilizers, liquids, specialty agricultural products, and other dry bulk commodities. The 45-hectare Vancouver Wharves facility contains five deep-sea berths totaling 900 meters long with alongside depths from 11.2 to 13.7 meters.
These Port Metro Vancouver wharves have capacity to store one million tons of cargo. Storage facilities have capacity for about 500 thousand tons of minerals, 175 thousand tons of sulfur, and 30 thousand tons of agricultural products. The Vancouver Wharves facilities also include 35 thousand square meters of covered storage for pulp, four tanks with total capacity for 10 million gallons of liquids, and ample land for additional storage. These Port Metro Vancouver wharves are served by several track areas and a loop track that can receive unit trains.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool owns and operates Port Metro Vancouver's Cascadia Terminal under the name Viterra. The Cascadia Terminal handles wheat, canola, barley, durum, rye, oats, and by-products. The berth is 274 meters long with alongside depth of 15.2 meters. The facility has capacity to store 282 thousand metric tons of cargo.
Port Metro Vancouver's Pacific Elevators is owned and operated by Viterra. Handling canola, peas, flax, agri-forage, and by-products, the Pacific Elevators facilities contain three berths. Berth 1 is a lay berth of 185 meters long with alongside depth of 9.6 meters. Berth 2 is a loading berth of 215 meters long with alongside depth of 13.7 meters. Berth 4 is 305 meters long with alongside depth of 10.2 meters. The Pacific Elevators facility in Port Metro Vancouver includes storage capacity for 199 thousand metric tons of cargo, and it is served by rail.
In 2011, Fraser Surrey Docks opened a new state-of-the-art agribulk facility to handle bulk agricultural products like canola meal, malt, and lentils. The facility has a railcar belly dump system with conveyor belts and a weighing system.
Port Metro Vancouver's Rogers Sugar, a cane sugar refinery, is Western Canada's major processor, distributor, and marketer of sugar products that include granulated sugar, icing, yellow and brown sugars, and liquid sugars and syrups. The refinery can produce as much as 240 tons of sugar each year from imported raw cane sugar. At 130 meters long with alongside depth of 9.1 meters, the Port Metro Vancouver's Rogers Sugar berth receives bulk raw sugar imports.
Port Metro Vancouver is a major breakbulk consolidation center for cargoes like forest products, machinery, and steel. Breakbulk makes up about 14% of Port Metro Vancouver's annual throughput and is handled by two terminals. Fraser Surrey Docks, a multi-purpose terminal, handles general cargo, lumber, logs, wood pulp, and steel in addition to containers.
Port Metro Vancouver's breakbulk terminals have ample storage space, on-dock rail service, and customized inventory management. Breakbulk berths offer alongside depth of 15 meters at low tide. Breakbulk cargoes include pulp, plywood, lumber, and newsprint. Port Metro Vancouver has three container terminals, and container-handling capacity should reach 4 million TEUs by 2012.
- Oil / Liquid terminals
Pacific Coast Terminals in the Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Inlet area is the world's biggest, most automated marine terminal for the export of sulfur and bulk liquids. Pacific Coast Terminals loads over 3.5 million tons of sulfur and 750 thousand tons of ethylene glycol every year. The terminal covers 43 hectares and contains two berths. Berth 1, handling bulk liquids, is 237 meters long with alongside depth of 12 meters. Berth 2, handling sulfur, is 293 meters long with alongside depth of 12 meters and can handle Panamax vessels to 70 thousand DWT.
Port Metro Vancouver's Pacific Coast Terminals has capacity to store 220 thousand tons of sulfur, 55 thousand tons of ethylene glycol, and an additional 11.2 thousand tons in currently unused tanks. Pacific Coast Terminals has infrastructure to store an additional 15 thousand tons. This Port Metro Vancouver facility is served by four thousand meters of rail serviced by Canadian Pacific. The sulfur loading rate is five thousand tons per hour, and the ethylene glycol loading rate is 800 tons per hour.
PetroCanada, one of Canada's biggest integrated oil and gas companies, operates its facility in Buraby in Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Inlet. Handling petroleum products, the facility has two berths. The West berth is 45 meters long with dolphins that can accommodate vessels to 40 thousand DWT with draft of 11.8 meters. The East berth is 40 meters long with minimum depth of six meters.
Kinder Morgan operates Port Metro Vancouver's Westridge Marine Terminal in Buraby for import and storage of jet fuels. The terminal also handles crude oil and petroleum products. The main dock face is 91.4 meters long with alongside depth of 11 meters, and it can accommodate vessels up to 250 meters long with maximum of 100 thousand DWT. The storage tanks for jet fuel have capacity for 45 cubic meters, and the terminal is connected to off-site storage with capacity for about 120 thousand cubic meters of crude oil. This Port Metro Vancouver terminal has capacity to load 2.6 thousand cubic meters per hour and to unload 1.6 thousand cubic meters per hour.
The Port Metro Vancouver facility operated in Burnaby by Shell Canada Limited. The Shellburn terminal handles petroleum products and styrene. The outer berth is 122 meters long with alongside depth of 8.9 meters, and the Inner berth is 94 meters long with alongside depth of 5.2 meters.
The Stanovan Terminal operated by Chevron Canada Limited at Burnaby in Port Metro Vancouver's Burrard Inlet is a 52-thousand barrel refinery producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and asphalt. The berth is 85 meters long with mooring buoys and alongside depth of 12.5 meters.
The Port Metro Vancouver's 3-hectare Univar Canada terminal handles caustic soda solution, ethylene dichloride, and ethylene glycol. Its berth, Lynnterm No. 7, is 200 meters long with alongside depth of 11.6 meters. Previously operated as Dow Chemical Terminal in Port Metro Vancouver, Univar Canada maintains a tank farm with rail capacity for 24 railcars. The facility can store 36 thousand tons of caustic soda and 26 thousand tons of ethylene dichloride.
West Coast Reduction Ltd. in Port Metro Vancouver's South Shore is a rendering industry leader operating a rendering plant and bulk storage terminal. Products are pumped underground to storage tanks before shipping. This Port Metro Vancouver facility also includes a commercial tank farm with capacity to store 57 thousand metric tons. The facility handles inedible tallow, poultry meal, feather meal, blood meal, fish meal, and fish oil. Its two berths can accommodate both container ships and large bulk tankers.
- Ro/Ro terminals
The Vancouver Gateway handles about 400 thousand vehicles each year, making Port Metro Vancouver on of the three top West Coast ports for handling vehicles. Two Port Metro Vancouver terminals supply dealerships across the country. These terminals also handle other types of cargo like heavy rolling machinery and equipment.
The Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics auto terminal in Port Metro Vancouver is located on the Fraser River. The terminal handles auto products from BMW, Mercedes Benz, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, and Kia.
Also located on the ice-free Fraser River, Fraser Wharves has been serving Port Metro Vancouver and the automotive transportation industry since 1971. Port Metro Vancouver is the second closest port to Japan and Asia, and Fraser Wharves can berth the world's biggest Pure Car Carriers. This Port Metro Vancouver terminal handles products from Lexus, Toyota, Mazda, Suzuki, and GM Daewoo. Fraser Wharves operates an integrated vehicle distribution center that offers vessel berthing and discharging, automobile repair and accessorizing, and transportation to Canada and the continental United States.
Port Metro Vancouver's Fraser Wharves covers an area of 43.3 hectares and has capacity for 14 thousand vehicles. The concrete wharf is 153 meters (500 feet) long with alongside depth of 11.5 meters (37.7 feet). The terminal is served by 73 rail cars per switch, and it has ten acres available for truck loading.
- Cruise terminals
Port Metro Vancouver is the homeport for the popular Vancouver-Alaska cruise. As such, Port Metro Vancouver welcomes as many as one million revenue passengers per year and boasts that it is the most passenger-friendly cruise port in North America. Cerescorp Company (Ceres) has a long-term terminal management and cruise ship service agreement with Port Metro Vancouver.
Ceres operates two cruise terminals in Port Metro Vancouver, one at Canada Place and one at the Ballantyne Pier. Each year, the terminals handle some 200 vessel sailings and 600 thousand passengers from the world's top cruise lines. Handling more than 40 thousand roll-on/roll-off units per year, Ceres also supports the Fraser Wharves and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics terminals.
- Port services
Port Metro Vancouver's jurisdiction is not limited to the industrial port and waterfront. It is also responsible for the recreational waterfront and conservation areas. The recreational waterfront in Port Metro Vancouver offers a variety of opportunities for residents and visitors. In addition to wonderful ocean views, the waterfront gives access to beach and water activities. Demand for privately-owned recreational docks continues to increase, and Port Metro Vancouver must balance demands from residential property owners, First Nations, area municipalities, and the port community. To accomplish this balance, Port Metro Vancouver is developing a Recreational Waterfront Management Plan for Burrard Inlet, Indian Arm, and Port Moody Arm.
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