Rising Chinese demand for lumber has prompted CN Rail to launch a $3.2 million effort to increase the container-handling capacity of its north yard and increase its payroll at the site by 25 employees.
Now operating at its threshold of 20,000 containers per year, the facility will be able to process more than 30,000 containers by the end of this year once the expansion is completed, a CN Rail official said Thursday during a media event held to provide details on the project.
Once the expansion is completed, there will be 57 employees on the site, most operating heavy machinery, a far cry from a year ago.
"It's been quite an evolution," said CN facilities manager Steven Allen. "We had a staff of five employees at this facility in July of last year, when the Asian market took off and we've been in a steady hiring mode since then and will continue that through the rest of this year."
The expansion will include construction of a second container-stuffing shed, doubling the capacity of the railcar unloading area and increasing the "lay down area" to roughly six hectares (15 acres) from three hectares (eight acres).
The expansion will occur on the northeast corner of the property and leave a further three hectares to spare.
Initiatives Prince George president Tim McEwan said it's "terrific news."
"The fact that CN is expanding about three-and-a-half years after the facility was opened shows how the China effect has taken hold," McEwan said.
McEwan said the expansion will dovetail with a plan at the Port of Prince Rupert, 720 kilometres west of Prince George, to increase its capacity to 700,000 containers annually over the next year or two from the current 500,000 and then to two million over the longer term, compared to 2.5 million at the Port of Vancouver.
McEwan raised no concern about CN's plan to start operation of its lumber container export facility at its Thornton Yard in Surrey this fall. It will have an initial footprint of eight acres and throughput capacity of about 10,000 containers per year, with room to grow up to eight hectares (20 acres).
"I think the issue down there is you have producers down south and it just makes logistical sense to have a transload down south," he said.
Mayor Dan Rogers said global supply logistics are essential to the regional economy, "and CN plays such a crucial role in that... this will help us grow our economy, create more jobs and help us export world-class products on a global scale."
From as little as 30 containers per week, activity reached the threshold of 400 containers by the start of last month and the expansion will boost that limit to about 700. Completed in 2007 at a cost of $20 million, it holds an 84,000-square-foot warehouse, an adjacent intermodal rail yard features two, 2,400-foot pad tracks, trucking and truck-pick-up capabilities and an automated gate system.
