MONTREAL, Que. — CN announced today it has signed a contract with COSCO Container Lines Americas, Inc., under which COSCO will become the first steamship company to route Asian freight over the new Port of Prince Rupert container terminal and CN’s North American rail network.

COSCO will commence service via the Port of Prince Rupert and CN for container shipments between Asia and the North American markets starting in the fourth quarter of 2007.

“Our partnership with COSCO, and Prince Rupert container terminal operator Maher Terminals of Canada Corporation, is clear recognition of the competitive advantages of the new port facility and CN’s rail network reach and superior service offering. The Rupert-CN-Maher combination will inject meaningful port-rail-terminal capacity into the global supply chain, and will offer shippers the fastest, most efficient and most cost-effective routing for Asian traffic destined to and from the interior of North America,” said James M. Foote, CN’s executive vice-president, Sales and Marketing.
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Phase 1 of the Prince Rupert terminal project will have initial throughput capacity of 500,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent containers) annually and is part of a broader plan to build a facility capable of handling two million TEUs per year.