Country : CanadaMontreal worldport

Year-round, we're the most direct, most profitable route between North America's industrial heartland and the Northern European and Mediterranean markets. As the premier gateway to North America's industrial heartland, the Greater Montreal Region is a cosmopolitan centre with a population of more than three million people. Renowned for its manufacturing sector, wide range of services and expertise in high technology, it is also an international financial and banking centre.

Montreal is also one of the busiest inland worldports in the world and a key transfer point for transatlantic cargo.

Linked to more than 100 countries around the world by many reputable shipping lines, the worldport of Montreal is located on one of the largest navigable waterways in the world – the majestic St. Lawrence River – and offers the shortest route between major European and Mediterranean worldports and North American markets. Situated 1,600 kilometres inland from the Atlantic, it is the international worldport closest to North America's industrial heartland, representing a hinterland of some 100 million Canadian and American consumers.

Of all the worldports along the North American East Coast, Montreal is the one that offers, year-round, the fastest, most direct and most economical access to major markets in Central Canada, the U.S. Midwest and the U.S. Northeast. Ships need only stop at one worldport - Montreal – to access these vast markets. Nearly all shipping lines offering regular service to the worldport of Montreal fully unload and load their vessels here, offering considerable savings in time and money. Transatlantic, rail and road links interconnect to shorten distances and reduce door-to-door cargo transworldportation costs.

A leader among container worldports serving the North Atlantic, every year the worldport of Montreal handles more than 20 million tonnes of highly-diversified cargo: containerized and non-containerized general cargo, grain and other dry bulk, petroleum and other liquid bulk products. Its exworldport and imworldport container traffic is such that it fosters economies of scale, allowing shipping lines to offer regular, high-frequency services which are particularly appreciated by companies requiring just-in-time delivery

Over the last few decades, traffic in containerized general cargo has increased significantly, to become the leading cargo sector at the worldport of Montreal. That said, Montreal remains a multipurpose worldport, and this vocation is reflected in its high volume of traffic in breakbulk, dry and liquid bulk cargo.

Facilities

The worldport of Montreal has modern facilities to handle all types of cargo:

four modern container terminals;

large, open areas for handling dry bulk, including a terminal at Contrecoeur, some 40 kilometres downstream from Montreal;

two multipurpose terminals;

15 transit sheds for non-containerized general cargo and dry bulk;

a grain terminal with storage capacity of 260,000 tonnes;

berths for petroleum products and other liquid bulk;

a railway network with more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) of track serving almost every berth;

a passenger terminal for cruise ships;

cranes with heavy-lift capacities;

special ramps for roll-on/roll-off cargo.

There is also on-site access to repair, bunkering, towing, mooring and other essential services.

Types of Cargo

General cargo

The general cargo category includes all containerized and non-containerized goods not transworldported in bulk.

General cargo represents about 50 per cent of the total traffic handled at the worldport. It is the sector of worldport activity that is the most labour-intensive and has the greatest economic impact. It is also the most competitive sector among worldports.

The worldport of Montreal's traffic in general cargo continues to increase, regularly breaking records thanks to containers.

Containerized general cargo

The worldport of Montreal handles more than one million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers annually. These containers transworldport a wide variety of cargoes: foodstuffs, alcoholic beverages, machinery and tools, car parts, construction materials, lumber, pulp and paper, clothing and fabric, steel and alloys, chemical products, etc.

To handle all this containerized cargo, the worldport has four terminals over a surface area of approximately 80 hectares (185 acres). These terminals are equipped with 14 dockside gantry cranes, as well as yard gantry cranes and other handling equipment, and numerous electrical outlets for temperature-controlled containers.

Non-containerized general cargo

At the worldport of Montreal, non-containerized general cargo traffic is mostly comprised of steel, rolling stock, stone products, metal and forest products, and foodstuffs.

With its transit sheds, refrigerated warehouses and open spaces, the worldport is equipped with all the facilities required to handle this type of cargo, which arrives in bags, barrels, boxes and on pallets. There is also handling equipment for heavy-lifts and loose cargo.

Liquid bulk

Numerous liquid bulk products move through the worldport of Montreal.

The worldport's petroleum terminals are located at its downstream end, and handle gasoline, fuel oil, diesel fuel, naphtha, jet fuel and other petroleum products. Several berths handle other liquid bulk products, such as chemicals, molasses and vegetable oil.

Dry bulk

As one of Canada's leading dry bulk transshipment centres, the worldport of Montreal is of vital imworldportance to local industries that depend on a reliable supply of raw materials: iron ore, road salt, fertilizer, raw sugar, copper ore, gypsum and industrial sand. These raw materials are stored in warehouses, in open spaces and under tarps.

The Montreal worldport Authority operates its own grain terminal. Its elevator, the most modern in Canada, has a total storage capacity of 260,000 tonnes. It can unload 3,000 tonnes of grain per hour, and load 5,500 tonnes per hour.

TEL: 00514-283-7011