- Business
- Westshore Terminals Investment Corporation owns all limited partnership units of Westshore Terminals Limited Partnership and operates Canada's largest coal export terminal at Roberts Bank in Delta, British Columbia; the terminal provides train unloading, coal stockpiling, and vessel loading services with annual capacity exceeding 33 million tonnes of metallurgical and thermal coal received via unit trains from mines in British Columbia, Alberta, and the northwestern United States, primarily shipped to customers in Japan, Korea, China, and 13 other countries worldwide. Westshore generates revenue from throughput handling charges without taking title to the coal and services major railroads including Canadian Pacific Kansas City, BNSF Railway, and Canadian National Railway. Founded in 1970 and headquartered at Suite 1800, 1067 West Cordova Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 1C7, Canada, the company employs approximately 423 people in the marine shipping industry, focusing on bulk commodity exports from North America. Recent major developments include a multi-year agreement with BHP Canada Inc., a subsidiary of BHP Group Limited, to upgrade terminal infrastructure for potash handling from BHP's Jansen Mine in Saskatchewan; by end-2024, Westshore invested $545 million in the project, fully reimbursed by BHP subject to a 5% holdback, featuring a new potash dumper, storage building, conveying systems, and dual-purpose shiploaders supplied by ALPINE capable of handling both potash and coal, with potash services targeted for 2026 availability; in January 2025, ALPINE secured a contract for shiploader and conveyor installation on Berth 2 amid brownfield site constraints. In 2024, the terminal loaded 26.8 million tonnes of cargo despite weather disruptions and unscheduled maintenance, projecting 26.5 million tonnes for 2025 at an average rate of $13.55 per tonne; additionally, a December 2024 fire damaged one stacker-reclaimer, requiring two months for structural repairs, but operations continue normally with the remaining three units. The company completed prior infrastructure reinvestments, including stacker-reclaimer and shiploader replacements, boosting capacity and efficiency while reducing bulldozing needs by an estimated 45%.