INDUSTRY INSIGHT Photo: Dave Roels (www.daveroels.com)
week. There is also a steady volume of steel imports and raw log exports. Other activity on the Fraser, of course, is the log and barge towing activity (although we don’t get involved in that). Overall, I’d have to say that industry on the river is contracting. When I first started, there were sawmills and gravel depots all along the river. Now, you can count on two hands the number of sawmills still in operation. So there is less raw log towing — less coming inbound to the river and if they do come in, much is going for export. The volume of traffic has slowed down in the last year — we’re seeing larger ships making fewer calls, which is consistent in shipping overall today. The number of ship calls may be down but overall tonnage is increasing. In terms of barge movements, the barges are larger now so there are fewer of them out there. The challenge for this however is that, as the barge size has increased, there are still various pinch points along the river — for example,
At the 2014 Chamber of Shipping Members Reception (left to right): Chris Wellstood, Anita BoyalGill, and Egge Kloosteboer (all from the Port of Vancouver); Gordon and Bill Wehnert (Fraser Surrey Docks).
narrow rail bridges and crossings — that haven’t changed in 100 years. The barges are close to their limit for size now. For container and bulk ships, draft and length are issues. Since we’ve come along
with our tug package, we’ve been able to assist in pushing the boundaries for length, but prior to our arrival with the Kootenay, there wasn’t that kind of horsepower available. Now, we’re assisting container ships
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Photo credit: Lisa Ireton
December 2016/January 2017 BC Shipping News 15