Peter Xotta, the president and CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, surveys the docks at the GCT Vanterm shipping terminal during a tour of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet on Monday. Mr. Xotta says the Port of Vancouver is a 'critical piece' in enabling trade relationships as Canada looks to diversify away from the U.S.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
The Port of Vancouver’s cargo volumes rose 13 per cent to set a record level of activity for the first six months this year as data show a trend toward Canada trading more with Asia and reducing reliance on the United States.
Terminals at Canada’s largest port are diversifying geographically, with a faster pace of growth to Asia compared with shipments to the U.S., said Peter Xotta, president and chief executive officer of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
“I am so enthusiastic about the discussion that’s coming out of Ottawa around this pivot,” Mr. Xotta said in an interview during a boat tour of Burrard Inlet, along downtown Vancouver’s waterfront.
As the trade war with the United States persists, the federal government has been advocating for diversifying trade and weaning dependence away from the U.S.
The port’s midyear statistics show that it handled a record 85.4 million tonnes of cargo in the first six months of 2025, compared with 75.7 million tonnes for the same period last year.
About 17 per cent of international trade through the port involved the U.S. recently, compared with 19 per cent last year.
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China is by far the largest trading partner with Canada at the West Coast port. China accounted for 25.4 million tonnes of exported and imported cargo in this year’s first half, up 25 per cent from the year-earlier period.
“There is strong momentum between Canada and these other nations where we’re trying to establish and build these trade relationships, and the Port of Vancouver is a really critical piece to enable that,” Mr. Xotta said.
Increased exports of commodities such as oil, fertilizer and grain contributed to robust shipments.
Containers are loaded onto cargo ship the Frankfurt Express, bound for Yokohama, Japan, at the Centerm shipping terminal in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. Japan was among the top 10 list of largest trading partners for cargo volumes, with China at the top.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
Exports to China from Canada made up 78 per cent of total tonnage between the two countries in the first six months of this year, compared with 76 per cent for the same period in 2024.
After China, the next largest trading partners for cargo volumes that made the top 10 list were Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Indonesia, Brazil, India, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Trading activity got a lift from the Westridge Marine Terminal, where tankers have been departing with diluted bitumen from the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.
The first oil shipment from the pipeline left Westridge for China in May, 2024. Dozens of tankers have made deliveries to foreign destinations since then, with China being the top customer, followed by the U.S.
Procurement has started for eventually building the land-mass component of the Vancouver port’s container expansion strategy, notably the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 (RBT2) project near Delta, about 30 kilometres south of Vancouver.
The project on the planned artificial island is subject to 370 legally binding conditions to comply with environmental rules, and it received approval in 2023 from the federal and B.C. governments.
Environmentalists warn that the new container terminal would threaten intertidal biofilm, affecting shorebirds such as western sandpipers.
Global Container Terminals Inc. wants to expand capacity at its three-berth Deltaport facility, proposing a fourth berth in a project that it argues would be better than RBT2.
GCT has submitted its proposal to the recently created Major Projects Office based in Calgary.
The cargo ship Ever Sigma is loaded with containers at the GCT Vanterm shipping terminal at the Port of Vancouver. Mr. Xotta says although the port's 'value proposition' is strong, 'relative to other ports, we’re not where we want to be.'Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
The shipping industry deploys large vessels to carry containers, which are reusable steel boxes measured as 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs.
Almost 1.9 million TEUs of exports and imports went through the Port of Vancouver in this year’s first half, up 6 per cent compared with the first six months of 2024.
But the port also handled more empty containers for export in the first half of this year, up almost 20 per cent from the year-earlier period.
Nearly 56 per cent of the total exported containers from the port last year were empty. Rather than waiting for the containers to be loaded with Canadian goods, shipping companies have been paying for them to be sent to Asia empty, so that they can be filled faster for the trip back to North America.
On the import side, the port saw a 3-per-cent increase in container shipments.
The Port of Vancouver continues to trail the pack in the Container Port Performance Index, compiled by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence. The CPPI reviews factors such as operating efficiency and turnaround times.
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The CPPI for 2024, released this week, placed Vancouver in 389th spot out of 403 ports reviewed in the world. In 2023, Vancouver ranked 356th on the list of 405 ports for that year.
Mr. Xotta said the container index is a narrow measure, emphasizing that the Port of Vancouver is a diversified operation.
“Our job is to continue to improve our competitive position,” he said. “The Vancouver value proposition is still strong, but relative to other ports, we’re not where we want to be.”
Vancouver finished ahead of Tacoma, Wash., in last year’s CPPI, but trailed other North American West Coast ports such as Seattle, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Prince Rupert, B.C., and Oakland, Calif.
China’s Port of Yangshan, near Shanghai, topped the container index rankings of the most efficient ports in 2024, followed by Fuzhou in China and Port Said in Egypt.