DP World Buys Canadian Cargo Terminal for $290 Million

The multi-purpose terminal near the Port of Vancouver will add to the Dubai-based operator’s capacity on Canada’s West Coast

The facility on the Fraser River, about 20 miles from the Pacific, serves container lines and handles around 1.5 million tons of agricultural products a year.

By 

Costas Paris

DP World is buying a large cargo terminal near Canada’s Port of Vancouver from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners for $290 million as the Dubai-based port operator extends its reach in Canadian shipping operations.

The buyout adds to DP World’s other Canadian terminals, which include operations in Vancouver, Nanaimo and Prince Rupert on Canada’s West Coast and the Port of St. John’s on the Atlantic seaboard.

Two people involved in the deal said the final price was around $290 million. DP World first said it was interested in the facility last May, when the operator said it was willing to pay below 2.5% of its own asset value.

Fraser Surrey Docks was founded in the early 1960s and has become one of the largest multipurpose terminals on the West Coast of North America.

The facility, which is on the Fraser River about 20 miles from the Pacific Ocean, is a major steel import terminal, serves several container lines and also handles around 1.5 million tons of agricultural products annually.

It has 4,000 feet of berth space for ships and 190 acres of yard capacity. The site handled 250,000 containers in 2018 and around one million tons of grain.

“DP World has been seeing growing demand from our customers for multipurpose facilities in the region and Fraser Surrey Docks has the relevant infrastructure and is in the right location to service this demand,” the Dubai-based operator said in a statement.

The acquisition was completed after the Dubai government said last week that it will delist DP World and return it to full state ownership.