By CRM Staff
Toronto, Ontario – April 10, 2019 —The Port of Nanaimo and Mercedes-Benz Canada celebrated the official grand opening of the B.C. Vehicle Processing Centre in Nanaimo on Tuesday, as reported by Nanaimo News Bulletin.
The new facility, which is the first of its kind in Western Canada, will act as a processing centre for Mercedes-Benz and its dealers, as well as the city of Nanaimo. The centre has been in development for the past two years and just received its first cars from a roll-on, roll-off car carrier ship for a test run of the facility in early March.
The initial phase of the operation will provide approximately 40 jobs and receive shipments from two ships per month. The centre is expected to process up to around 10,000 vehicles annually.
“We’re still ramping up, so we won’t have the final figures here until later this year. I see an expansion for sure happening,” said Andrew Noye, Mercedes-Benz Canada vice-president of sales.
Noye explained that the ships bringing vehicles to Nanimo will be picking up some vehicles from the Mercedes-Benz plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and also from a new manufacturing facility in Mexico.
“We have another facility coming on line in Mexico. We’re also stopping to pick up cars there and bringing them here as well … we want to make sure that we’re operational and effective first here with what our plans are and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
Other brands affiliated under the Mercedes umbrella will also go through Nanaimo to dealerships on the Island and Lower Mainland.
“We have a sub-brand we call EQ and it’s our all-electric vehicle and that will start coming to Canada in the spring of next year,” Noye said. “That will also be served here as well.”
The processing centre was developed in partnership with Nanaimo Port Authority and Transport Canada, Western Stevedoring, the auto division of SSA Marine and B.C. Vehicle Processing Centre and is the only Western Canadian entry point for European auto manufacturers, allowing vehicles to be brought by sea directly to Western Canada instead of being unloading on the east coast and transported by rail across the country.
“The dealerships will store the vehicles on-site here rather than storing them in Greater Vancouver, so that’s another advantage of the facility,” said Dave Lucas, Western Stevedoring senior vice-president.
Ian Marr, Nanaimo Port Authority president and CEO, said the processing centre will bring sustainable, year-round business to the port.
“This one will be a constant. For the near future it’s going to be two ships a month, moving forward,” Marr said. “We’ll see how the volumes go. It’s all about sales and things like that for (Mercedes-Benz) and we’ll see how that goes, but I think as we get into it there will be more manufacturers coming on board and using Nanaimo as their destination … I think what we’ve done here is establish that this is the first one that says, ‘Look. You can do it,’ and with a name like Mercedes on it, they know it gets done right if they’re doing it and so I think other manufacturers will go, ‘Look. This is viable and does make sense.'”
