Montreal, Halifax Turn the Corner

 Like other North American ports, Canada’s two big East Coast ports suffered declining container throughput in 2009, but the downturn at Montreal and Halifax hardly stretched to all trade the end of the year.

The pace of decline in container volume slowed at Montreal, and throughput even turned up late in the year at Halifax, pointing to a gradual recovery in the year ahead. Montreal finished the year with a 15.3 percent drop in container traffic, to 1.25 million TEUs, from 2008’s 1.48 million. It was the first year since 2002 in which total traffic declined at the port, but Sylvie Vachon, president and CEO of the Montreal Port Authority, said the December data suggests traffic has stabilized. “This points to a gradual but slow recovery that calls for us to remain cautious,” she said.

Another encouraging sign is the port’s trade with the Mediterranean. Volume connected to the region grew despite the economic crisis, with loaded TEUs up 5.5 percent over the year before.

Container throughput in Halifax dropped 11 percent for the year, with container volume falling to 344,811 TEUs. Volume jumped 17.3 percent in the fourth quarter, however, as containerized exports soared 28.6 percent and imports increased 5.6 percent from a year earlier.

Halifax scored some gains during the year, attracting new services by five shipping lines: CMA CGM and Cosco (representing the CKYH alliance that includes “K” Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin). In addition, Maersk returned to the port for 27 weeks, Melfi returned after switching earlier in the year to Montreal, and the Grand Alliance and CKYH introduced services with direct calls to and from Vietnam.

The port’s roll-on, roll-off cargo declined 13.2 percent year-over-year, as imports and exports of automobiles and other vehicles fell below year-earlier levels.

Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com.