"Traffic to east coast North American ports is growing roughly twice as fast as traffic to west coast North American ports from Asia," says David Lee Crowley, president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), an independent economic and social policy think tank based in Halifax. Crowley is also a leading proponent of the Atlantica concept, which was the subject of the Atlantic Canada Spotlight in the March 2005 issue of Site Selection. "These huge ships are having an impact on world's trading systems, but it's only just beginning."
   Crowley says the world's container ship fleet will increase its capacity by about 50 percent within the next five years, and nearly all of that growth will be linked to post-Panamax ships; about 250 such ships will be built in that timeframe. Asian cargo will access Halifax and

Karen Oldfield, president and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority

other east coast North American ports via the Suez Canal, which has no vessel-size limitations. That's a good thing, because there are ships afloat today that carry 10,500 containers, and construction is under way on those that can carry 12,000. Some predict vessels that carry 15,000 containers.
   But will the Port of Halifax and the region in general be ready to handle such behemoths when they come calling in greater numbers? Not a problem, says Karen Oldfield, president and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority.
   "We have excellent, natural advantages, including a deep, ice-free harbor — the depth is an advantage over New York, and being ice-free is an advantage over Montréal," she explains. "But what Halifax has that is gold in today's marketplace is capacity in three primary areas. One is berth capacity, so vessels don't have to sit at anchor awaiting a berth. Secondly, we have terminal capacity with two terminals that are operating at roughly 60 percent capacity, which is very important. And thirdly," Oldfield continues, "we have capacity on the rail line. Our main rail link into the prime markets of Québec, Ontario and the U.S. Midwest is operating at 30 percent capacity. So there is a lot of room for growth."
   These factors combined are very important in the context of today's global trading flows due to the investments other ports would have to make to relieve congestion to handle post-Panamax cargo volumes. "Our capacity over the next several years will be taken up very quickly if for no other reason than that we have that capacity and other ports do not," Oldfield maintains.
   Recently completed capital projects worth about US$8.6 million at the Port of Halifax included a berth deepening at one of the two container terminals, making it the deepest on the east coast of North America. Post-Panamax cranes — those that can reach across the wider vessels — are in place, and the port is investing in additional equipment to service the big ships as well.
   Plans are in the works to expand the port once the existing capacity is taken up, says Oldfield. The port and the City of Halifax are studying ways to alleviate truck congestion associated with a terminal in the city center by constructing a new inland terminal outside the city to which containers would be trucked or transported by rail.