Canada Ports & Corridors
Special Report
“ Global maritime shipping networks have been reshaped in ways that have reduced Canada’ s relative connectivity and carrying capacity,” the bank said.“ This less central role for the country could mean greater exposure to supply chain disruptions that could increase the cost of doing business.” The Bank of Canada researchers said some of the country’ s declining port connectivity may stem from fewer, larger container ships than those measured in 2016. More of those larger ships, though, head to US West Coast ports, with imports into Canada having to absorb the extra cost of surface transportation from Southern California.
“ Many imports coming on larger ships from southeast Asia, for example, must first travel to and be processed through the Port of Los Angeles before being shipped to Canada by train or truck,” the BOC report said.
In response to a query about the report, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority( VFPA) said its data shows total container ship calls fell from about 750 in 2016 to about 550 in 2023.
However, the amount of container cargo the port handled since 2016 grew 29 % to 3.8 million TEUs through 2025, during which the port saw 624 ship calls.
The VFPA said the time period also coincided with the drawdown in global container ship capacity following the bankruptcy of carrier Hanjin in 2016 that resulted in fewer direct port calls, and the steep decline in activity in 2023 following the pandemic, with non-Asian trades seeing the steepest drops.
“ The Port of Vancouver handles about half of all of Canada’ s annual seaborne container traffic— thanks in part to our unparallel access to Indo-Pacific markets— and connects Canadian businesses to more than 170 countries,” Cliff Stewart, vice president of operations at the VFPA, said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce.
COMMENTARY
Recovery,
not dominance
By Larry Gross
Improvements in import volumes arriving at the Western Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert have been cited as evidence that these ports may be offering a“ better mousetrap” for importers in the American Midwest versus other West Coast alternatives. Indeed, the numbers for Western Canada are up versus the prior year, a much better performance than on the US West Coast. But that is only part of the story. A closer look reveals a story of recovery, not dominance.
Western Canada has been on a tear. Imports were up 6.6 % year to date through April and 8.9 % over the past 12 months. This is far stronger than the US West Coast, which notched 6.1 % and 7.1 % declines, respectively, over the same time frames. But simply looking at a snapshot of the year-over-year comparisons is inadequate because it doesn’ t capture the fact that Vancouver and Rupert collectively have been climbing out of a deep hole, and the journey is not yet complete.
The first table compares the annual import TEUs by year for the different West Coast port regions as an index, with the year 2020 set at 100. Comparing 2025 performance with 2020, five years earlier, import TEUs landing on the West Coast were up 8.1 %. Meanwhile, Western Canadian import volume was down 3.1 %, an 11.2 % performance gap. Growth for Western Canada has been strong for the past two years, but the region has been clawing its way back from a disastrous 2023, which came in about 19 % below 2020.
Of course, there was a good reason for the poor performance in 2023, given the 13-day strike in July. Recovery was slow and hindered by subsequent disruptions in the inland network. In 2024, the Canadian National( CN) service was severed in July as a wildfire tore through Jasper, Alberta. This was followed by a strike in August that affected both CN and Canadian Pacific.
Looking at things from another angle, the second table presents Western Canadian import TEU share ver-
Table 1
Index of annual import TEUs( 2020 = 100)
Port region 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 LA-LB 100.0 114.4 105.4 93.5 114.9 114.4 Northern California 100.0 106.0 99.5 84.2 96.8 96.3 PNW 100.0 119.9 99.8 88.9 104.6 93.3 Southern Calif. w / o LA-LB 100.0 117.0 129.7 118.8 118.5 124.6 Western Canada 100.0 101.4 97.6 80.8 91.0 96.9
Grand Total 100.0 112.0 103.3 90.4 108.4 108.1
Sources: IANA ETSO, port reports, PIERS and GTC analysis © 2026 S & P Global
36 Journal of Commerce | August 3, 2026 www. joc. com