An Interview with Keith Robson President and CEO of the Hamilton Port Authority
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Questions for this interview have been prepared by : Ed Kearns |
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LQ: What advantages does Hamilton have over other ports for the importer/ exporter in terms of rail and transit times and those good things like labor stability and so forth?
Keith Robson: The major advantage Hamilton has is our location at the end of Lake Ontario in the heart of the Golden Horseshoe, where we have good road and rail connections. The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) links to Toronto, Buffalo, New York and, through Highway 403, links us to the Windsor/Detroit area. Both CN and CP serve the port. CN serves Hamilton through the short-line railway, Southern Ontario Railway. CP serves the port directly. In addition we have an excellent strike-free labor force.
LQ: What would you attribute that to?
Keith Robson: Our labor force is a keen, professional group, well paid for their work. Also, their work activity is for 9 or 10 months so when they are working they try to make up for the three months of inactivity.
LQ: What changes are taking place in the market that might cause Hamilton to refocus for the future?
Keith Robson: The growth of containerization and world trade during the last few years has meant we must be in the container business. Our whole strategy is focused around “how do we participate and assist our shipping community in this area.” Some of our traditional bulk cargoes are now moving in containers. For example, some specialty grains, paper and pulp. Other bulk products such as specialty oils and finished steel get moved in containers. It is estimated that 80 percent of the world trade is now in containers. Due to our location, we can be an excellent distribution center for this whole region. We are a multi-modal port and hub, capable of providing all of the links that are required to establish distribution centers in the Port of Hamilton. Cargo for the U.S. — Buffalo and Detroit and beyond — can be loaded/off loaded “in bond” and shipped to/from customers.
LQ: What’s are the geographic areas in which Hamilton could assist manufacturers and target markets. What are your target markets?
Keith Robson: We work with companies in terms of their imports/exports, wherever they are going in the world. Our logical market is Europe for both imports and exports. South America, China, India and Japan are also important markets for us. Their shipments can move through the Panama and Suez canals via the east coast of North america on a feeder service, or directly into the Great Lakes Waterway System. These options bypass some of the congested areas now experienced by shippers. As far as the North american market is concerned, our cross-lake truck ferries would be designed to help manufacturers ship product back and forth across the border, which would avoid border complications and traffic congestion at the bridges — the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, the Peace Bridge and the Ambassador Bridge in the Windsor/Detroit area. This also helps ease the continuing and increasing driver shortage.
LQ: That’s going to become even more important in a fairly short time. Do you foresee more terminal operators at the Port and, if so, why?
Keith Robson: It depends on what you define as a terminal operator. In terms of stevedoring, we don’t see any terminal operator changes in the short term. In the longer term we will have more warehousing operators as we develop distribution centers.
LQ: How do you see the change of ownership in the major shippers in the Port changing activities of the Port?
Keith Robson: That’s a very difficult question to answer. The biggest uncertainty right now is the future of the steel industry, particularly since Dofasco has recently been taken over. At some point we will have a clearer picture of how these developments will impact the Port of Hamilton. Hamilton receives large amounts of coal, iron ore and coke to support the steel industry. Coke is also exported. Dofasco is now part of a bigger organization and it is going to compete with all the other world locations in the metal sector. What that means to Hamilton is not known right now. We have diversified our commodities substantially over the last five years: We handle a lot more bulk liquids, and there’s a major grain exporter from Southern Ontario now through J. Richardson. Slag is also a big export cause these days — the byproduct of the steel. Food oils, part of the liquid bulk, are new. In addition we have Biox, a biodeisel facility, on the Port. So we’ve diversified substantially.
LQ: What is the potential for feeder container service on the Great Lakes and in particular for Hamilton?
Keith Robson: Hamilton is a natural inland terminal for direct feeder container services (short sea shipping). We straddle the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe Region, where there is a significant population. We have already talked about our good road and rail access. We have vessel operators located in Hamilton, Toronto and St. Catharines who have expressed an interest in developing a short sea or feeder service. I expect others will come forward as well. There are some challenging factors to be resolved, however, by the federal governments of Canada and the U.S. These are pilotage, large duties to bring in a foreign ship and the HMF (harbor maintenance fee) on the U.S. side.
LQ: Environmental issues have always been important. What has been done in this area and what are the plans (policies) for the future?
Keith Robson: Hamilton Harbor has a Remedial Action Plan Committee, which has been active for approximately 15 years. A lot of cleanup has occurred here and I would say we are leading the charge in terms of environmental issues. We’re the first port in the Great Lakes to establish an environmental manager whose sole job is to look at sustainability and how we can improve our environmental performance. We also work with the industry as part of the Green Marine program.
LQ: What is the Green Marine program?
Keith Robson: That’s an industry initiative to minimize the environmental footprint of the marine industry and at the same time demonstrate that the marine sector is the most environmentally friendly way of moving product, particularly in terms of reducing greenhouse gasses.
LQ: And what about today’s other hot issue: security.
Keith Robson: We’ve done everything we need to do under the ISPS code (International Ship and Port Facility Security) and probably more than the Canadian government and the U.S. government have established as essential steps for ports. We are investing, with funding from the Canadian government, substantial amounts of money into security technology — fencing, cameras, electronic sensing devices. We’re securing parts of the port and limiting access to the port, particularly the cargo and shipping areas, and by the end of next year, security clearance will be required for all of the employees and essential for tenants in the high-security regions.
LQ: Thank you.