CN moving grain at record pace
Written by RT&S Staff
Despite bad winter weather and restrictions on Canadian canola exports to China, CN moved more grain than ever before.
Canadian National
Class 1 railroad company CN announced on July 29 that it moved more Canadian grain during the 2018-2019 crop year than ever before and set multiple new records despite the restrictions on Canadian canola exports to China. Many of these records were achieved during the peak demand period and despite extreme weather conditions.
During the 2018-2019 crop year, CN moved over 27 million metric tonnes (MMT) of grain, as compared to the previous record of 26 MMT set in 2016-2017, and compared to 25 MMT in 2017-2018.
November 2018 broke CN’s best individual month record for grain movement at 2.71 MMT, and that record was surpassed again in April 2019 with 2.72 MMT. CN was also able to deliver seven individual weeks of over 7,000 hopper cars of grain movement per week. This past crop year, CN also moved approximately 1 MMT of grain in containers.
“Our $7.4 billion dollar investments in our network are delivering results for Canadian grain farmers and the Canadian economy,” says JJ Ruest, president and chief executive officer of CN. “I’m proud of what CN has achieved. Despite a late start to the harvest, record cold temperatures in February, and rainy weather at export terminals restricting ship loading, our dedicated ONE TEAM of railroaders moved more grain than ever before. This was in large part due to strategic investments in people, equipment and capacity. With more locomotives, more crews, and a renewed fleet of rail cars, we are determined to enable the growth of natural resources export supply chains via West Coast ports.”
“This year’s results are all the more impressive when considering that many records were set during the peak grain demand season, and that CN moved an additional 1 million tonnes of grain in containers,” says Allen Foster, vice president of Bulk at CN. “This year was a banner year for grain movement. Grain customers have also focused on locating the majority of brand new high throughput elevators in western Canada on CN … we saw seven open between June 2018 and July 2019, another four announced during the 2018-19 crop year, and two more will open shortly. We are optimistic about the upcoming harvest.”
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