Prince Rupert (Kaien Island, BC Canada)

Prince Rupert is a deep-water port city located on Kaien Island in British Columbia (BC Canada). The city has population around 13,000 and covers a total area of 53 km2 (21 ml2). Prince Rupert's current day economy is based on port services (container shipping and logistics), fishing industry and tourism.

The sheltered harbour of Prince Rupert is the deepest natural ice-free harbour in North America, as well as the third deepest natural harbour in the world. It is North America's northwestern most port linked to the railway network of the continent. The port is first inbound and last outbound call port for cargo ships traveling between western North America and eastern Asia. The capacity of Prince Rupert port is nearly the same as that of Port of Vancouver.

Much of Prince Rupert harbour is formed by a shelter provided by the island of Digby, which is situated windward of the city and contains Prince Rupert Airport. The city lies on Kaien Island and the harbour includes also Morse Basin, Wainwright Basin, Porpoise Harbour and Tuck Inlet, as well as part of Chatham Sound waters, taking in Ridley Island.

On August 29, 2017, Port Prince Rupert completed the works on Fairview Container Terminal's expansion.

• Following the DP World’s port expansion project, the terminal now can accommodate even the world's largest container vessels (20,000+ TEU boxships).
• Fairview Terminal's capacity was increased from 850,000 to 1,35 million TEUs (containers) annually. The 2-year expansion project included building a 2nd berth, that is served by 3 new Malacca-max gantry cranes.
• On April 21, 2018, Hapag-Lloyd Line made company's first-ever call here with the ship YM Masculinity. The seaport offers short transit times to other Canadian and US destinations, including 3-day to Calgary and 5-day to Montreal.
• The completed in 2017 "Phase 2A" increased terminal's capacity by 0,5 million TEUs (to 1,35 million TEUs). Expansion project's "Phase 2B" (mid-2019 through 2022) will increase Fairview Terminal's annual capacity to 1,8 million TEUs. The project includes enlarging the container yard (from 32 to 41 hectares) and adding 2 new rubber-tired gantry cranes plus 8th dock gantry crane. The existing buildings will be relocated for more TEU storage capacity. On-dock rail capacity will be also increased with 2036 m (6680 ft) new working rail track (to a total 7522 m / 24680 ft) by 2022.

For FY2016 (fiscal year 2016), the port contributed with over CAD 1 billion to Northern British Columbia’s economy. The port's activities (terminal, rail, truck and logistics services) support over 3100 local jobs, with earnings totaled over CAD 260 million (average annual wage over CAD 80,000).

In 2018, the cruise port had booked a total of 30 ship calls and handled around 17,000 passengers. Among the largest cruise companies calling at Prince Rupert are NCL Norwegian, also the luxury brands Oceania, Seabourn, RSSC Regent. Tour options include wildlife viewing (bears, whales), jet boating, hiking, seakayaking.

Prince Rupert cruise terminal