DP World, which owns Prince Rupert’s Fairview and Vancouver’s Centerm container terminals, is creating the fund in partnership with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Canada’s second largest pension fund manager.

Dubai-based DP World will hold a 55% share of the new investment pool; CDPQ will hold the remaining 45%.

The investment fund will be seeded with DP World’s two B.C. container terminals. According to the investment fund announcement, CDPQ will acquire a 45% stake of the combined terminal assets for $865 million.

Last year, DP World announced a $200 million investment in the seven-year-old Fairview terminal to increase its container cargo-handling capacity by approximately 60%. In December, DP World said it would be conducting a feasibility study for Phase 2 of the terminal expansion that could increase its annual handling capacity to more than two million 20-foot containers from 850,000.

Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping carrier, plans this week to add another transpacific service to Prince Rupert and Vancouver, to meet growing customer demand and what Maersk Canada president Jack Mahoney said are the cost competitive options to reach Canadian and American markets that the two Canadian ports provide.

DP World acquired Fairview from Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) in April 2015 for $580 million.

The number of container shipping lines offering service to Prince Rupert, one of North America’s fastest growing container shipping ports, has increased to 10 from one when it opened for container service in 2007.

DP World also plans to invest $350 million in expanding its Centerm container terminal on the south shore of Vancouver’s inner harbour.

In a recent update to its 2012 Study of U.S. Inland Containerized Cargo Moving through Canadian and Mexican Seaports, the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) raised concerns over the continued migration of North American container shipping traffic away from U.S. West Coast ports north to Canadian and south to Mexican ports.

Rest at https://www.biv.com/article/2016/12/bc-container-shipping-terminals-get-first-crack-5-/