Canada Posts Record Grain Movement in January
So far this winter, grain movement in Canada has incurred few if any major problems to stymie rail shipments, according to Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., which tracks rail movement in Canada. He said Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Rail have done a good job moving grain. “They have benefitted by one of those years where they’re really enjoying a calamity-free year. We don’t have floods. We don’t have blockades. We don’t have massive derailments. We’ve had a reasonably mild winter,” he explained.
At 2.29 MMT, CP Rail set a new January record for grain movement and has transported more than 15 MMT of grain and grain products so far during the marketing year.
However, CP Rail said a few days of rain along the West Coast hampered grain movement. CP called on the federal government and industry to upgrade grain facilities at the Port of Vancouver, noting the rain problem is causing “significant capacity constraints for Canada’s export of grain and agricultural products.”
The Canadian Grain Commission reported that halfway through the 2022-23 marketing year producer deliveries of 34.02 MMT of all grains were up almost 33% compared to a year ago. Also, terminal receipts of 28.91 MMT increased by 35.7%. Total exports jumped 45.4% at just under 24.90 MMT.
