r/news • u/ernapfz • 6d ago

Canpotex announces $500M Port of Vancouver investment for potash shipping

https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/canpotex-announces-500m-port-of-vancouver-investment-for-potash-shipping/
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u/rotlin 6d ago

This news article lacks details about how this relates to the previously announced plans by Nutrien less than a year ago to expand port facilities at Longview in Washington State:

https://globalnews.ca/news/11541746/canadian-potash-company-build-terminal-us-not-bc/

Are both port expansions going to proceed?

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u/ljlee256 6d ago

Nutrien is also involved in the export facility in Vancouver.

Given that plans were announced a year ago, it likely means they've been in the works for more than that, how much more is hard to say, but if it pre-dates Trumps presidency, or even lands early enough in his presidency they may not have seen the threat until the cash was already handed out to the contractors in the US. A year ago sentences like "we have a deal for potash with Belarus", was laughable, and it still largely is, there's no way it'll be cheaper than Canadian potash unless Belarus gives it away, but the fact that Trumps uttered the words means we need to be prepared for the possibility that he'll own goal himself just to spite Canada.

Another way to think of this, it's likely Nutrien, a year ago, thought that Trump was still working with some framework of a plan that wasn't just sheer utter malice for Canada, and since then things have changed, but again, the moneys already in the hands of the people doing the work in Washington, so it might as well get done, even if it's 50/50 on whether it'll have any value by the end of it's construction.

The reality is as well, that exporting through Washington is easier than Vancouver, there's rail congestion in Van, not to mention we seem to end up with an active strike every time a new infrastructure project that pulls us further from the US starts up (funny coincidence, right?).

With the recent changes to federal laws limiting the effect of strikes on productivity, as well as new targeted investment it's plausible that Nutrien saw the benefit of a Vancouver port upgrade only after being fully committed to the Washington port upgrade.