Colliers Canada’s Supply Chain group formed a task force consisting of industry, academic and government leaders to support collaboration and sharing of knowledge during the disruption caused by COVID-19.
One area that was quickly identified as a risk is warehouse capacity. With the current drop in demand for non-essential goods caused by regional lockdowns and shuttered retail locations, inventory continues to build up in warehouses and distribution centres across Canada. In addition, incoming containers carrying inventory need to be unloaded in a timely fashion to ensure availability of containers for exporters. This will be of significant importance as we start to open up the economy again and need to get goods moving.
Vacancy is at record low levels in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal – The following is an overview of the Alberta markets that have the capacity to absorb this spike in demand with current availability. In addition, these markets are well- positioned on the rail lines coming out of Vancouver and Prince Rupert ports, which means unloaded containers can be quickly repositioned without adding too much incremental transport cost to the temporary inventory storage solution.
Learn more about pressure relief for the supply chain here.