The BC forest industry is adding its voice to those calling for an immediate end to the BC port strike, now that’s its entered a full week of shutdowns along the coast.
The BC Council of Forest Industries says some companies have begun looking at alternative methods to ship their products to the United States, either by rail or by truck.
However, COFI Chief Economist Kurt Niquidet says that comes with its own challenges.
“Our companies are always in close contact with the rail companies,” said Niquidet. “But there’s certainly a concern just about how flexible some of those systems can be. There’s only so much capacity.”
While companies which supply the United States market can find alternative modes of delivery, the port strike makes that impossible for companies servicing the Asian markets.
Niquidet warns that as the strike drags on, BC companies shipping to Asia run the risk of losing their clients to others in the global market.
“It is a global marketplace, and there’s alternative suppliers,” notes Niquidet. “So I think it’s just that much more important for us to get this resolved quickly.”
The BC Forest Sector ships around 15-billion dollars a year worth of wood products through the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert.
COFI is among those calling on Ottawa for immediate intervention to bring the port strike to an end.
The lingering port strike is not expected to have a major impact on Kruger’s operations at the pulp mill in Kamloops, as most of the product it produces is sent back east to the company’s paper producers in Quebec.
Radio NL has reached out to Kruger to discuss impacts in Kamloops, as well as its other operations in British Columbia.