Port of Vancouver hopes expansion under gateway strategy will win back business

Loading machinery Neptune Bulk Terminals in North Vancouver, which handles bulk products such as potash and coal. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

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The Port of Vancouver hopes plans to expand its export capacity can win back business it lost when Canada’s largest potash producer picked Washington state for a new export terminal.

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It was a disappointment to Canada’s biggest port a year ago when Saskatoon-headquartered Nutrien Ltd. picked Longview, Wash., 350 kilometres south of its existing export facilities in North Vancouver, as its preferred destination for a $1 billion expansion for shipping potash overseas.

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Nutrien cited rail bottlenecks in Metro Vancouver and labour disruptions in the Port of Vancouver as reasons for choosing Longview.

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But Peter Xotta, CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, said the port’s gateway strategy aims to resolve those problems with co-operation of the federal government.

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“We think that we’ve got some things to offer and are anxious to get to maybe refresh Nutrien’s look at Vancouver, along with other bulk commodities that are part of (Prime Minister Mark Carney’s) objective to double trade,” said Xotta.

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The strategy includes the port’s Roberts Bank Terminal 2 expansion, which aims to double container capacity at the artificial island in Delta.

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Since July, the port authority has also worked on developing the gateway strategy’s business case to convert two vacant port properties, the former Sterling Shipyard site on the south shore of Burrard Inlet and Fraser Wharves on the Fraser River in Richmond, into new bulk terminals.

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Both sites require remediation work and redevelopment, but Xotta said the federal political will to expedite permits could speed up timelines enough to make the Port of Vancouver competitive with other locations.

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“Frankly, if we can get a major shipper like Nutrien interested in one of the sites, it becomes kind of, I think, a rallying cry for all of the regulators and government around making sure that things that are proposed actually happen,” Xotta said.

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He added that typical terminal proponents are looking at timelines of three to five years to become operational once they make decisions to “hit go.”

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“The new kind of paradigm that were in Canada, with some urgency around trade expansion, it puts us in a position to do that,” Xotta said of meeting those kinds of timelines.

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The Port of Vancouver handled a record 170 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, with big surges in bulk commodities such as grain and potash, which set new records of 30 million tonnes of grain and 10.5 million tonnes of potash.

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Scenes from the Neptune Bulk Terminal a year after Saskatchewan potash producer Nutrien Ltd. picked the port of Longview, Wash. as its preferred terminal for a $1-billion dollar export expansion. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10113033A

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Xotta said to play its part in Carney’s objectives to expand trade would mean increasing Vancouver’s capacity by 40 million to 60 million tonnes a year.

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Nutrien is already a major Port of Vancouver customer as co-owner, along with competitor Mosaic, of Canpotex, the potash export facility at Neptune Bulk Terminals on the North Shore. In September, Canpotex announced a $500 million project to upgrade its equipment and expand exports.