The quality of Canada’s transportation infrastructure and the efficiency of the country’s trade corridors are key to the success of Canadian companies in the global marketplace. The Government of Canada invests in infrastructure projects that create quality, middle-class jobs and support economic growth.

The Government of Canada is committed to protecting and serving Canadians through the challenge of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  That includes making sure our vital trade corridors and gateways remain open and functional and ensuring Canadians continue to receive the essential goods they need to remain safe and well while supporting and stimulating Canada’s economy.

Today, the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Marc Garneau, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, announced a significant new investment of $33.4 million for the construction of a close to 100,000-square-metre multipurpose terminal west of the Port of Trois-Rivières’ existing infrastructure. The new terminal will be used for the transhipment of dry bulk, liquid bulk and general cargo. The project includes the construction of a wharf and road and rail access roads, as well as storage space.

The terminal will also help improve traffic flow and eliminate the bottlenecks currently facing the port, and allow it to develop a multimodal platform to ensure the efficient transfer of goods between road, rail, and maritime modes.

These investments have significant economic benefits for Canadians, creating approximately 630 jobs during the construction period, and contributing to economic recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Government of Canada is supporting infrastructure projects that contribute most to Canada’s success in international trade. Trade diversification is a key component of the National Trade Corridors Fund, through projects that:

• improve the performance of the transportation system to increase the value and volume of goods exported from Canada to overseas markets; and
• generate new overseas trade as a result of the investment.

“Our government is investing in Canada’s economy by making improvements to our trade and transportation corridors. We are supporting projects that will help efficiently move goods to market and people to their destinations, stimulate our economy during the pandemic, create quality middle-class jobs, and ensure that Canada’s transportation networks remain competitive and efficient.” The Honourable Marc Garneau Minister of Transport

“Strategic investments to strengthen transport infrastructure are essential to our economy. The Port of Trois-Rivières provides transportation links that ensure local companies can get their products to market efficiently, while remaining competitive. These improvements at the Port of Trois-Rivières will help businesses move more products to market.” The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne Minister of Foreign Affairs

At a crucial time for the UK as preparations are underway for the UK’s departure from the EU customs union, this new weekly call into Grangemouth expands the vessel rotation on Samskip’s existing Amsterdam/Hull service, opening up wider coverage for customers and providing Samskip with additional capacity to meet increasing demand from the Scottish market.

The service offers an alternative to customers current supply chains with a regular additional call into mainland Europe each week. Cargos expected to use the service include food and drink; paper and steel products. The weekly rotation calling into Grangemouth each Thursday, also calls into Hull and Amsterdam.

Scott Montgomery, Manager of Sales & Operations in Scotland for Samskip said:

“Customers have become accustomed to our reliability and the reach of our intermodal services deep into continental Europe. As their businesses have grown, we’ve grown with them, increasing our capacity on a regular basis to meet their needs and working closely with the Port of Grangemouth to move Scottish business through a Scottish port. Now we take the next step, adding a second ship to improve our capacity, frequency and transit times to and from a number of key markets, in particular, Germany. We’re Brexit ready and our additional ship can help our customers make sure their supply chains are too.”

Commenting on the new service, Derek Knox, Senior Port Manager at The Port of Grangemouth said: “It’s great news for Grangemouth and for the Scottish market that Samskip have chosen the port for this additional call on their growing short-sea European service. The Port of Grangemouth plays a key role in Scotland’s logistics and freight sector and this additional call will increase the frequency of vessels connecting to mainland Europe and provide an enhancement to the current offering from the Port to the Scottish Market.  Grangemouth is Scotland’s key strategic freight hub with the country’s largest container port. Samskip’s customers will benefit from our efficient and fast turnaround times in addition to the many advantages that can be obtained from our key strategic location within Scotland.

This call is a new alternative to existing supply chain solutions as the UK prepares to leave the EU on 31st December. These changes should both streamline supply chains and also contribute to our net zero targets as they will facilitate the transfer to short sea shipping routes as opposed to road transport. We continue to invest significantly in Grangemouth with new equipment, an expanded container terminal area and over 400 reefer connections securing us as Scotland’s freight hub of choice.”