Canaan Group sets up at Ashcroft Terminal

Originally published at CNW Group.

The Vancouver based Canaan Group looks to BC interior to better serve its customers. Canaan believes that the use of the Inland Terminal in Ashcroft BC will give producers and shipping lines much needed options to improve efficiency and reduce congestion issues.

VANCOUVER, Jan. 28, 2015 /CNW/ – Canaan Group, a global logistics company, will commence container handling operations and logistics services at Ashcroft Terminal starting Q2 of 2015. Partnering with selected shipping carriers, Canaan Group will operate container handling services including, on/off rail, storage, container and truck management, trans-loading, and distribution of products.

Empty containers will be repositioned to Ashcroft Terminal, and loaded containers will go back on rail to be returned directly to the marine terminals for vessel loading. The strategic location of Ashcroft Terminal, allows the many forestry operations that are currently trucking export products to the Lower Mainland, a more cost effective location to direct hit to docks in the Lower Mainland. Products include lumber, OSB, plywood, pulp, and wood pellets.

Using the Canaan facility, customers will have the option to source load their products and return containers back to Ashcroft Terminal to be shipped out by rail. Customers also have the option to send products directly to Ashcroft Terminal where Canaan will transload to containers. In Q4 Canaan Group will have the ability to service other commodities including grain, specialty crops, pipe, steel, and other products that require large space for handling. Canaan is planning on building modern warehouse facilities to service imports by preparing their products to go direct to their retailers, thereby increasing the efficiency of the container round trip for the shipping lines.

Mr. Patrick Lo, President & CEO of Canaan Group, looks to Ashcroft Terminal in the same light as the successful Prince George, BC reload and the inland terminal in Greer, South Carolina. “Our company has offices around the world and we have seen the benefits of the Inland port model in action. Canada has been slow to respond however Prince George’s service to Prince Rupert opened the eyes of the industry with its success. It started with 10 containers a week in 2007 and now handles over 600 per week, lowering costs for BC and Alberta producers. The US is more mature in this area and if one looks at the port of Greer, South Carolina, some 212 miles from the port of Charleston, the growth and success is evident. Greer started off with 100 containers per week in October 2013. Within one year, it is moving over 750 containers per week and has a daily train on Norfolk rail, and it is growing. The one difference is that Greer is 75 acres, while Ashcroft Terminal is 320 acres”.

Canaan has been operating a successful container transloading business in the Lower Mainland for over 30 years, and while we continuously look for opportunities to give customers cost effective solutions the reality is they don’t exist. The Ashcroft Terminal location, 200 miles away and directly on both of Canada’s class 1 railways, is a crucial solution for our customers and a necessary relief valve on congestion and the associated costs of Transloading in the Lower Mainland”, says Mr. Lo.

About Canaan Group and Ashcroft Terminal

Canaan Group is a conglomerate of logistics companies, and headquartered in the Lower Mainland for over 35 years. Mr. Lo will be speaking on Wednesday, January 28 at the Cargo Logistics Canada Conference in Vancouver.

Ashcroft Terminal is a 320 acre Inland Terminal with both mainlines of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways directly onsite. AT currently services all sectors of the Natural Resource industries; Agriculture, Mining, Oil & Gas and Forestry, providing transloading, material handling & storage and railcar storage.