Momentum building after ‘defining year,’ says Port Saint John CEO

The CEO of Port Saint John says the harbour has momentum for the coming years.

Economic momentum is building at Port Saint John following “a defining year,” says to its CEO.

Craig Bell Estabrooks released the port’s annual report for 2025 on Monday, saying last year was impressive for cargo and cruise ship numbers with 2026 “off to a good start.”

“We’re a little bit lighter in the container volumes than we were this time last year, but activity is picking up,” said Bell Estabrooks. “We had a lot of weather-related challenges earlier in the year and some blank sailings. But conversely potash numbers are higher than they were this time last year.”

In 2025, two additional container cranes became fully operational at Port Saint John (after arriving in late 2024), alongside the completion of a $247-million modernization, which expanded terminal capacity. Operations will soon pick up inside a recently constructed $100-million cold storage facility at the port.

Metrics included in Port Saint John’s 2025 annual report include:

• 239,364 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of container cargo
• 24.5 million metric tonnes of liquid bulk
• 1.3 million metric tonnes of dry bulk
• 196,000 cruise passengers across 83 vessel calls

2025 saw a record-breaking number of cruise ship vessel calls in Port Saint John, with cargo traffic up nearly 30 per cent over 2024.

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