The recently announced G3 export grain terminal project is not the only one under serious consideration at Port Metro Vancouver, according to a port official.
Doug Mills, senior account representative in the port’s trade development department, said there have been conversations with more than a dozen companies.
Some of those firms are in the advanced stages of mulling over their proposed projects.
“There potentially are perhaps one or two that are in a position to make a decision in the not too distant future,” he said.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
That is in addition to G3 Global Grain Group, which announced in June it had formed a joint venture with Western Stevedoring Company to explore the feasibility of building a terminal capable of exporting six to eight million tonnes of grain per year.
“There is significant interest,” said Mills.
“We have had a number of national and international companies approach us to discuss the potential for domiciling a terminal within the port jurisdiction.”
Shippers had access to international markets through a variety of port terminals when the Canadian Wheat Board’s export monopoly was in place.
That access disappeared with the demise of the monopoly because companies that own the terminals want to use them to ship their own grain.
Mills believes that is what is behind the sudden interest in new export terminal projects rather than the booming agricultural economy.
“I don’t think it’s normal market supply-demand forces that are causing this interest in developing terminals,” he said.
“I think much of it is securing access to markets.”
However, there is plenty of competition for the diminishing industrial land at the port.
“There is generally speaking a huge demand for terminal development for a number of resource based products,” said Mills.
Competing interests include the petrochemical industry, petroleum, potash, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas.
They are vying for a land resource that is becoming increasingly scarce.
“We’ve got a real crisis at the port,” he said.
Tidewater availability is especially hard to come by, which is why there is starting to be a shuffling of assets.
Activities that support vessel loading such as rail car switching, transloading, cold storage and warehousing distribution don’t need to be located at tidewater, but some of them are because they were built at a time before there was a scarcity of land.
That is why Western Stevedoring intends to relocate its break bulk facility at Lynnterm West Gate on the port’s north shore to make room for the G3 grain terminal.
Mills doesn’t consider the G3 proposal to be an official project until the port receives a permit application, which he expects in the near future.
“That’s when the true scrutiny would occur,” he said.
The permit would trigger a port-led review process that includes evaluating the building plan, conducting environmental assessments, community outreach and other regulatory activities.
The length of the review depends on the complexity of the project, but something like the proposed G3 terminal could take six months to a year, said Mills.
Project developers sometimes decide they are unable to meet the standards established by the port or escalating costs deter them.
“Vancouver is not the most inexpensive area for property development,” he said.
“When it comes down to actually pulling the switch, it’s probably a fraction of what we hear actually comes to fruition.”
However, Mills has a gut feeling that at least one new grain export terminal will be built at the port.
