Westshore Terminals

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Westshore Terminals is a coal export terminal located at Roberts Bank Superport, Delta British Columbia, 32 kilometres south of downtown Vancouver. It was built in 1970, and as of 2010 had capacity of 29 million tonnes per year. It is Canada’s largest coal export facility, surpassing the combined coal shipments of all other terminals in Canada. Westshore is also the largest single export coal terminal in all of North America, routinely shipping about 21 million tonnes of coal each year. U.S. Shipments reached a record 2 million tonnes in 2009.

The Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership is owned by Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Westshore Terminals Holdings Ltd. Westar Management Ltd. has a long-term, renewable contract to operate and manage the terminal. As of 2011 Canada was the world’s seventh-biggest coal exporter.

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Coal Mines

Westshore draws its coal from four main sources:

• Teck Coal in southeastern British Columbia (Coal Mountain, Elkview, Line Creek, Fording River, Greenhills) and Alberta (Cheviot Mine).
• Grande Cache Coal in west-central Alberta
• Sherritt Canada (Coal Valley, Obed Mountain) in Alberta.
• United States mines in the Powder River Basin (Montana & Wyoming) and Utah.

Most of the mines are large, open pit mines. Grande Cache has one surface mine and an underground mine and is seeking to secure permits to open another underground mine in future.

Coal Railways

Three major railways service the terminal:

• Canadian Pacific Railway hauls about 65% of all coal handled at the terminal.
• CN (Canadian National Railroad) brings coal from Albertan mines.
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad handles coal from US mines.

Westar

In 1993, Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison took over management control of Westar, including Westshore Terminals, and by 1997 had privatized the company.

According to SSA Marine, a private cargo handling company, SSA entered into a joint venture with Westshore Terminals in 1990 to develop the Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point near Ferndale, Washington.

Agreement with Teck Resources for expanded export

In October 2010, Canada-based Teck Resources Ltd. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. unveiled a new 10-year agreement for moving coal from five Teck mines to the Pacific Coast for export. Financial terms of the deal, which will begin in April 2011, were not announced, but CP said it agreed to enhance capacity on its system to handle increased volume from the mines in southeastern British Columbia. Teck plans to increase coal production at the mines by 50 percent over the next few years, and was looking for an agreement that ensured the higher production could be moved to ports near Vancouver.

Teck chief executive officer Don Lindsay said in a statement: “This agreement gives Teck the certainty we need to realize our growth strategy in coal and to deliver our increased production on a timely basis to our key markets.” The mining company won approval from Canadian regulators in 2009 to shift some of its coal traffic from Canadian Pacific to its larger rival Canadian National Railway Co., and it will continue to do that. The coal, used for steel making, is transferred to ships at Vancouver’s Westshore Terminals and Neptune Terminals, and Teck plans to continue using both facilities under the deal, it said.

Coal exports exempt from BC coal tax

Although all the CO2 emitted by all B.C. businesses and residents -- for all cars, trucks, natural gas, coal, power plants, ships, and industry -- is subject to a carbon fee (adding up to 47 million tonnes of carbon in 2010), coal exports are not subject to such a tax. Carbon is taxed at $20 a tonne by the B.C. government, and B.C. businesses and residents paid close to a billion dollars in carbon pollution taxes in 2010. In comparison, 2010 coal exports amounted to 50 million tonnes of carbon pollution, all exempted from the B.C. carbon tax. Taxes collected by B.C. on mining also appear to be at the lowest level in many years, despite the price of coal going up: coal has increased $140 per tonne since 2006 - a 350 per cent increase in price in just six years, and jumping another $20 -- to over $200 per tonne -- in the first quarter of 2011.

Cloud Peak Energy to ship more Powder River Basin coal to Asia

In June 2011 Cloud Peak Energy signed a 10-year deal to ship basin coal to Asia from a port on Canada’s Pacific Coast. Cloud Peak Energy Inc. signed the deal with Westshore Terminals to ship coal through its Westshore Terminal in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company shipped 3.3 million tons of coal through the terminal to Asian customers in 2010.

Swiss company buys into Signal Peak Mine

In October 2011 Pinesdale LLC, a subsidiary of Swiss based Gunvor Group Ltd., paid $400 million for one-third ownership in the Signal Peak Mine. Gunvor announced plans on boosting the underground production from a stated 9 million tons a year to about 15 million tons and ship the coal to Pacific and Asia markets through Westshore Terminals in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was the company's first investment in a U.S. coal mine.

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• Canada and coal
• China and coal
• Coal exports
• Coal exports from northwest United States ports
• Existing U.S. Coal Mines
• Montana and coal
• Oregon and coal
• Powder River Basin
• U.S. coal exports
• Washington (state) and coal
• Wyoming and coal
• Railroads and coal
• Coal terminals
• Profiles of other states (or click on the map)