Marine Movement
MARINE 24
The approximate cost of carrying material from British Columbia into San Francisco Bay is pretty much the same as carrying it 25 miles in a truck around congested roads in northern California.
Movement
uring its first 12 months of operation, BritEconomies of scale ish Columbia’s Polaris Minerals Corp. proallow international duced 2.4 million tons of high-grade sand deepwater and gravel suitable for use in ready-mix conshipments to crete. Its customers line Pacific coast markets, includcompete with local ing northern California, Hawaii, and Vancouver. The premise of the venture is that marine transtrucking costs. port of aggregates can provide a cost-effective alby Therese Dunphy, Editor-in-Chief ternative to trucking. By leveraging the economies of scale, including use of Canadian Steamship Line (CSL) self-discharging vessels that transport 80,000 tons of aggregate and barges that can handle capacities up to 6,100 tons, the company has greatly expanded its potential market area and can provide aggregate along the California coast where local availability is spotty and new deposits are extremely difficult to permit. Before the company broke ground at its Orca Quarry or its Richmond, Calif., distribution yard, the company first established strategic business partnerships that provide the long-term base it needed to justify the initial capital investment and ongoing transportation economics. “In each of those market places, we secured a long-term contract with customers,” says David Singleton, president of Eagle Rock Aggregates Inc., the U.S. marketing subsidiary of Polaris Minerals Corp. For example, in the San Francisco market where Polaris provides the aggregate shipments, the company established 20-year supply agreements with its two