Canada has revealed plans to build a brand new $400m transhipment port hub in Sydney on the east coast of Nova Scotia. The port will be designed to handle the largest class of containerships currently in operation, and will rival the Panama Canal and other ports in the Gulf and along the US east coast, which are not yet ready to handle the largest ships.
The port is intended to serve as the first port of call in the US for ships arriving westbound from Asia via the Suez Canal. Cargo would then be transhipped via feeder services along the east coast or transported inland by rail.
The scheme mirrors Prince Rupert port on the west coast of Canada, which currently serves as a transshipment hub for cargo arriving from Asia across the Pacific and is able to offer faster transits than most US Pacific seaboard ports.
If the plan goes ahead the new facility would have an annual capacity of up to 1,000,000 TEU and Cape Breton Regional Municipality, which is buying the land on which the terminal would be built, has already attracted investors to the project. This is the second attempt to redevelop the port in recent years – a previous project four years ago collapsed during the global financial crisis.
