Million plus container terminal project for Port of Sydney in Nova Scotia

WITH 500 acres of waterfront land and being the closest North American port to Europe, and also being closer to Brazil by water than Miami, the Port of Sydney, Nova Scotia, can be transformed into a container terminal similar to its counterpart, Prince Rupert on the west coast of Canada, and capable of handling million plus TEU.

But Sydport Project has had more than its share of controversy. In the first instance, another buyer (Atlantic Gateway Shipping Terminals) was angling for the right to build out the site. Then the City of Sydney stepped in and arranged a sale, estimated to be in the range of US$6 million, from Laurentian Energy to Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM). Laurentian had tried earlier to attract interest to the site without much success. Atlantic Gateway protested the sale to CBRM feeling the deal had been hijacked by the city.

The facility has the three most important attributes of a port: "Location, location, and of course, location". The fill used for the project was taken from the Sydney Harbour channel dredging project, which at once improved access and created an opportunity. The cost of dredging was $40 million in a public/private venture. The dredging was finished last January and financed with $20 million from the province matched by another $20 million from the federal government.

Gordon Forsyth, an international marketing consultant and spokesman for the Sydport Gateway project, was recently hired by CBRM to help promote the 500-acre site with the ultimate goal of bringing on board an international marine terminal company.

Mr Forsyth, managing partner for industry marketing firm BSY Associates Inc., is enthusiastic about the potential of the site. "It's North America's eastern most port and the closest to the Suez Canal, a day and half closer than New York," New Jersey-based Mr Forsyth said in an interview with the American Journal of Transport.

"You could build and operate a container terminal cheaper in Sydney than any place else in North America," Mr Forsyth said.

In addition there are very few spots in North America that will be able to handle the latest generation 8,000- to 10,000-TEU vessels, not to mention the top-end 18,000- to 20,000-TEU ships, giving the Port of Sydney a huge potential advantage over competitors.

What the CBRM are looking at is a Phase 1 facility with a capacity of one million TEU at a build out cost in the range of $350 million to $400 million. The terms of the lease to the terminal operator would be in the long range 75 to 99 year time frame. Phase 2 would cost an additional $300 million to $350 million and add another one million TEU to the total.