Hanam Canada Corporation

CONTAINER TERMINALS

Hanam Canada can help arrange economical containerized shipments to and from Canada. The annual throughput of the container terminals in British Columbia are shown in the following table. OOCL line is the leading shipping line followed by K-Line and Hanjin. Centerm, owned by Dubai World serves the New world Shipping Alliance and has the greatest throughput. Vanterm serves the CKHY Shipping Alliance and handles the largest average ship size. Centerm and Vanterm are both served by CP Rail.  Deltaport is served by both CN and CP Rail.

Different ships within the various shipping alliances can meet the trade requirements of particular routes. For example, barley for a brewery in Korea served by Hanjin can be placed on a vessel owned by another shipping alliance member Cosco vessel calling at Prince Rupert. Alliance members are allocated their own space on each ship to market and cooperate to provide joint port-to-port services.

The shipping lines compete with each other to attract customers by offering different service packages and their prices may vary. For example, the free storage time, delivery time, container delivery and pick-up service, terms of payment and personal sales relationships may be different for Hanjin and Cosco even though the same ship is used.

The shipping alliances organize their routes or services such that the major Asian ports are served on a regular schedule. By coordinating their schedules they can provide more frequent regular service to the five US and two Canadian ports. For example, the Cosco ship Antwerp that first called on Prince Rupert is part of the CKHY Alliance’s Butterfly South Loop that includes 9 container ships. The route provides weekly service in Hong Kong, Yantian, Qingdao, Dalian and Xiamin in China, Yokohama, Japan, Prince Rupert, Vancouver and Seattle.

Marine terminal price

The posted tariffs for moving a 40-foot container through a terminal at the various ports are compared below. In California prices are higher in the day time during the peak demand for service and lower in the afternoon and evening. Based on posted tariffs, in Canada shipping lines or major importers must pay a $190/FEU surcharge for 24-hour service.  Importers also pay surcharges of $102/FEU for afternoon or $205/FEU for Saturday openings provided they have sufficient containers to move. California terminals are much busier in the afternoon and evening due to these lower prices.

The actual prices paid by shipping companies for terminal services are less than the posted tariffs. But these actual prices are confidential and subject to negotiation. The actual rates to the New World Alliance members at Centerm are the same for day time or evening operations. The main components of the price are: wharfage charged by the port, terminal charges, and gate charges. Shipping companies also pay for pilots, tugs, demurrage, customs clearance, a security surcharge, container storage, and cleaning.

The US Federal Maritime Commission granted Pacific coast terminal leaseholders immunity from antitrust regulations and they can coordinate charges, rates, hours of operation, and interchange of intermodal equipment.  Hours and gate fees are coordinated but terminal prices are integral with shipping prices and are competitively set.

Wharfage, the fee paid to the Port Authority is much higher in Los Angeles and Long Beach, about $260/FEU higher, than in Vancouver or Tacoma. There is a much greater demand in California for returns to the public partly because the terminals were built and financed by the local governments. The wharfage fees charged by the Port of Vancouver and Port of Prince Rupert are the same, $68/FEU for imports and $49/FEU for exports.

Terminal Services Tariffs $/FEU 

In Vancouver, Seattle and Tacoma the posted price of marine terminal services is similar. The terminal prices at Deltaport and Vanterm is $462/FEU for regular import service and $379 for exports. The public tariffs include labour, the terminal lease, insurance, capital recovery, interest, property tax, income tax, and intermodal yard costs. About half of the terminal price is for labour.  Prices are for 8-hour shift packages taking into account the number of import and export lifts per hour. Since ship unloading and load is intermittent, crews of longshore workers are called as required. Typically a 22 person crew may be needed to achieve unloading rates of 25 containers per hour. The crew includes crane operators, supervisors, drivers, clerks, equipment operators, lashers, and helpers and costs about $3,000 per hour.