Direct China–Canada service
North America and Asia move (even) closer together.
Children in Canada will breathe a sigh of relief when they hear that Christmas presents from China can now be delivered on time. The port of Montréal has welcomed the first containership to deliver goods directly from China, without transhipment in the Mediterranean.
In mid-November the deepsea freighter ‘Happy Rover’ arrived in the port of Montréal from China, marking the first time in the history of the hub on the St Lawrence River that it welcomed a containership straight from the Far East, without a part of the cargo being transloaded in the Mediterranean Sea.
The ‘Happy Rover’, chartered by the forwarder Fracht FWO and usually a specialist for heavylift goods, sailed from the Chinese port of Taicang late in September. It then stopped over in Busan (South Korea), sailed through the Panama Canal and then docked at the Racine terminal, operated by the Montreal Gateways Terminal Partnership (MGTP), in mid-November. The vessel then sailed for the Great Lakes, where it called at Cleveland OH (USA) and Thunder Bay, in the Canadian province of Ontario, its final destination before turning around for the Far East.
In a media release the port of Montréal said that it is connected to approximately 140 countries worldwide, which makes it the second-largest Canadian maritime gateway after Vancouver, on the west coast. Montréal handles growing volumes with Asia; the latter now accounts for more than 30% of its cargo volumes.
Easy access to the intermodal network
This new direct link represents good news for consumers, firms as well as other players on the China–Montréal route; they’ve experienced a number of unforeseen global supply chain blockages in recent months. Many consumers are seriously concerned about looming shortages in the run-up to and during the holiday season.
The option “provides an optimal solution in terms of supply chain fluidity and efficiency,” according to the port authority, and benefits from good access to the port’s infrastructure and intermodal system linked to the rail and road networks.
Good news for Christmas
Guillaume Brossard, the Montreal Port Authority’s vice-president for growth and development, underlined the fact that “our partner MGTP’s flexible response and creativity has helped us fulfil our role of ensuring services for the benefit of North American businesses and citizens.”
Market observers hope that many gifts or parts thereof still needed to manufacture them will reach their recipients in North America on schedule, thus enabling presents to be placed in children’s Christmas stockings in time.