Supply chain

The Canadian transportation system continued to handle high container volumes, despite container availability issues and higher than average end-to-end transit time.

The high demand for container goods has led to congestion at West Coast ports in both the U.S. and Canada. End-to-end transit time from Shanghai to Toronto via West Coast ports averaged 34.5 days in 2021, well above the three -year average of 27.6 days. The Port of Vancouver’s end-to-end transit time peaked at 47 days in December 2021, following the B.C. flood. Despite challenges, Canadian ports were less congested than their U.S. counterparts.

On Canada’s East Coast, container end-to-end transit time from Antwerp to Toronto was 20.5 days, only slightly above the three year average of 19.1 days.

The empty container shortage across North America continued to be a challenge through 2021. Amid high demand and high freight rates, ocean carriers prioritized returning empty containers to Asia to be re-filled with imports. This led to accessibility challenges for Canadian exporters especially for the grain and forestry industries. In 2021, exports of empty 20ft containers were up 25% at the Port of Vancouver compared to 2020.

As global demand for shipping rebounded in 2021, shippers were willing to pay higher freight rates for marine carrier services. This led to a sharp rise in container freight rates (by 400% on some shipping lanes) which started to stabilize in October 2021, but are still higher than pre-COVID.

The 2020-21 crop year exported an all-time high volume of grain following a large crop and high demand for Canadian agri-products. Grain volumes have been strong with shipments from the Prairies up 3.6% and exports from western ports up 16.5% for the 2020-2021 crop year. Summer drought conditions led to a significant drop in grain production for the current crop year (2021-2022).

End-to-end transit time to ship grain from Saskatchewan to Asia through the Port of Vancouver has stayed relatively stable over the last couple of years, with some seasonal changes including times peaking in winter months. In 2021, grain heading to China averaged 39.9 days, only slightly above the three year average of 39.6 days. For grain going to Japan, the 2021 end-to-end transit time was 34.0 days, slightly below the three year average of 34.4 days. However end-to-end transit time to Japan and China peaked (52.5 days to 45.0 days respectively) in December 2021 following the B.C. flood.