The new CANXPORT facility has officially opened at the Port of Prince Rupert, expanding Canada’s capacity to move exports through its Pacific trade gateway. Supported by nearly $50 million from the federal National Trade Corridors Fund, the Ridley Island facility includes expanded road and rail infrastructure and is designed to handle at least 400,000 containers annually, with potential capacity of 750,000. CANXPORT will support exports including forestry and agricultural products and plastic resins, while improving rail-to-marine connections, supply chain resilience and trade diversification. The investment builds on growing activity at Prince Rupert, which handled 26.3 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, up 14% from 2024.

A new Economic Impact of West Coast Ports Study highlights the vital role Canada's West Coast ports play in supporting trade, jobs, and economic growth across the country. The study comes at a time when Canada is seeking to diversify trade and expand exports to markets beyond the United States. As Canada's primary gateway to the Indo-Pacific region, West Coast ports are positioned to play a key role in strengthening the country's economic resilience and international competitiveness. According to the report, British Columbia's ports handled more than 200 million metric tonnes of cargo in 2025, valued at $409 billion. This represents the safe movement of approximately $1.1 billion in goods every day. Nearly $270 billion of that trade was conducted with overseas partners, accounting for close to half of Canada's trade with markets outside North America.  The report also highlights the broader economic benefits generated by port activity. West Coast port operations and related supply chains support 152,100 jobs across Canada, generate $13 billion in annual wages, and contribute nearly $25 billion to national GDP.

The findings underscore the importance of ensuring Canada's Pacific Gateway remains stable, reliable, and competitive. As global trade patterns evolve and geopolitical uncertainty grows, continued investment in port infrastructure and supply chain efficiency will be essential to supporting economic growth and helping Canadian businesses access international markets.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has completed a series of road and rail upgrades in Surrey’s Fraser Surrey Port Lands that are expected to improve cargo movement, cut inbound container truck transit times by 50%, and reduce port-related greenhouse gas emissions. The project included a new dedicated truck lane to the DP World Fraser Surrey terminal, extensions to Timberland Road South, and upgraded road and rail crossings. The improvements come as cargo volumes continue to grow, with bulk exports through the area increasing more than 80% since 2021 and container traffic rising over 10% in 2025. Supported by the federal National Trade Corridors Fund, the project will enhance the movement of grain, canola oil, containers, and project cargo through the Port of Vancouver, strengthening Canada’s trade gateway and helping exporters access global markets more efficiently.

The Vancouver Maritime Museum is running a 50/50 raffle to support the future of St. Roch. Half the proceeds go to the lucky winner, and the other half supports the St. Roch Revitalization Project, helping improve accessibility, share newly uncovered stories, and create more engaging ways for visitors to experience this remarkable vessel. Enter for a chance to win half the pot while supporting an iconic national treasure and one of Canada’s most significant National Historic Sites. With only 7,840 tickets available, each ticket offers a 1 in 7,840 chance of winning.  Purchase your tickets on the VMM website.

The federal government has awarded an $11.3-billion contract to Quebec’s Chantier Davie shipyard to build six new Polar Class 3 icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, described as the largest shipbuilding contract in Quebec’s history. Construction is expected to begin with the first steel cut in fall 2027, with the first vessel delivered five years later and all six operational within a decade, supporting about 5,000 jobs and more than 1,500 Canadian suppliers. Built with Canadian steel under Ottawa’s “Buy Canadian” policy, the vessels will replace ageing Coast Guard icebreakers and operate in Atlantic Canada, the St. Lawrence and the Arctic. The investment forms part of Canada’s broader fleet renewal and complements the Canada-US-Finland ICE Pact aimed at expanding North American icebreaker capacity.

HMCS Robert Hampton Gray, Canada’s newest Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, is making a historic voyage from Halifax through the Northwest Passage to its new home with the Pacific Fleet in Esquimalt, BC. The journey will mark only the third complete Arctic transit by a Royal Canadian Navy warship and the first undertaken specifically to relocate a vessel from the Atlantic to the Pacific fleet. The deployment also marks the first time a Canadian naval vessel has operated with a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter embarked. Following a Greenland visit, the ship will conduct several weeks of surveillance, sovereignty and ice-navigation patrols in the Bering and Chukchi seas, including cooperation with the US Coast Guard, before arriving in Esquimalt and being commissioned into the Pacific Fleet in November.

The federal government is investing $53 million in three new salmon hatcheries in British Columbia that could raise and release up to one million additional juvenile salmon annually into the Fraser and Skeena watersheds. The facilities in Prince George, Gitanyow and Tŝilhqot’in territory will be developed in partnership with First Nations and will support Chinook and sockeye recovery as Pacific salmon populations remain under pressure. The projects are expected to create up to 100 construction jobs over three years and 10–15 permanent positions at each hatchery once operational.

US President Donald Trump has acknowledged that the United States remains heavily dependent on Canadian aluminum amid an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries. Trump said the US urgently needs additional aluminum supplies, noting that Canada currently provides more than half of American consumption. His comments come as a 50% US tariff on metals remains a key source of trade tension. The two countries had reportedly been close to an agreement to reduce the aluminum tariff, but opposition from U.S. steel and aluminum producers complicated negotiations. Trump is also advocating for expanded domestic aluminum production to reduce US reliance on imports.

The U.S. Coast Guard is offering eligible merchant mariners a temporary 120-day authorization to continue sailing on expired national endorsements while the National Maritime Center processes delayed renewal applications. The targeted measure applies to certain credentials that expired between January 1 and July 31, 2026, where renewal applications were submitted before expiry but remain incomplete because additional information or testing is required. The relief does not apply to STCW endorsements or medical certificates and comes as broader temporary credential extensions expire August 31. The measure follows a major processing backlog stemming from the 2026 federal funding lapse, which resulted in more than 19,000 accumulated applications, although estimated processing times have since improved significantly.

The US Maritime Administration (MARAD) and Core Power have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to accelerate the development and deployment of US-flagged commercial vessels powered by small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). The partnership will establish pathways covering regulatory approval, port operations, mariner credentialing, nuclear fuel and lifecycle services, insurance and financing. It is MARAD’s third SMR-related agreement under a broader US initiative to develop nuclear propulsion for commercial shipping, following agreements with the ports of Long Beach and Corpus Christi to establish testing areas for nuclear-powered vessels. The initiative aims to position the United States as a leader in next-generation maritime propulsion while establishing the regulatory, safety and commercial framework needed for deployment.

Baltic grain exporters are experiencing a sharp increase in demand as attacks on shipping and port infrastructure disrupt Russian and Ukrainian wheat exports and force traditional Black Sea buyers to seek alternative supplies. Around one million tonnes of wheat have been booked for August loading in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, up roughly 50% from a year earlier, following a threefold increase in July bookings. Demand is emerging from traditional Russian wheat customers including Turkey, the UAE and Sudan, alongside stronger buying from established Baltic markets such as Nigeria and South Africa. With Baltic crops benefiting from wetter weather and an estimated six million tonnes available for export this season, the region could capture additional trade if Black Sea disruptions persist, although its wheat remains more expensive than Russian supplies.

China’s vehicle export boom is increasingly spilling beyond traditional car carriers and into the container shipping sector as demand outpaces available Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) capacity. A recent COSCO Shipping operation moved 13,052 Chery vehicles from Taicang Port, China, to Vado, Italy, using containers and multipurpose vessel capacity, with each shipment carrying more than 4,350 vehicles, roughly equivalent to a medium-sized car carrier. The shift reflects the rapid expansion of China’s automotive exports, which reached 6.14 million vehicles in the first seven months of 2026, a 66.8% year-over-year increase, including 2.91 million new-energy vehicles. Analysts estimate that containers and other non-PCTC vessel types could transport around two million vehicles in 2026, double the volume carried in 2025, highlighting how container shipping is becoming an increasingly important and flexible component of China’s growing multimodal vehicle export logistics network.

BW LNG has unveiled a new 177,000-cubic-metre LNG carrier design that increases cargo capacity by 3,000 cbm while maintaining the same vessel dimensions and terminal compatibility as the widely used 174,000-cbm class. The three-tank design, developed with GTT and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and approved by DNV, will be incorporated into four vessels under construction at HD Hyundai Samho for delivery between late 2028 and 2029. Featuring GTT Mark III membrane technology, improved partial-load flexibility and a lower boil-off rate, the vessels are expected to reduce energy requirements and emissions intensity per unit of LNG transported while preserving the operational flexibility of existing LNG carrier designs.