With grain exports expected to be two to three million tonnes higher this year, grain marketers and shippers are turning their attention to moving that grain to market.
And some industry players say they have concerns about the ability of the system to ship that amount of grain.
“We do have concerns about capacity going into this crop year,” said Ward Weisensel, chief operating officer for the Canadian Wheat Board. “There’s definitely going to be more pressure on the system.”
Fran Malecha, head of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool’s grains group, said it’s a subject that’s on everyone’s mind as the busy fall shipping season approaches.
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“It looks like we’re going to test the system a little more this year,” he said. “That always raises concerns.”
Exports of western Canadian grains, oilseeds and pulse crops are forecast to be around 28.9 million tonnes in 2005-06, up from 26.2 million tonnes last year.
Industry officials say it will require a concerted effort by everyone – farmers, grain companies, the CWB and the railways – to ensure transportation issues don’t interfere with sales opportunities.
“The pressure is going to be on every player in the system to make the best possible use of the capacity we have in the system this year,” said Jim Feeny of Canadian National Railway.
Concerns about transportation capacity often turn into questions about the number of rail cars or locomotives in service.
Feeny said CN has put sufficient resources into the system, but he emphasized that the railway doesn’t operate in isolation in the transportation pipeline.
“We’ve been encouraging all of our customers and shippers to make optimum use of the capacity that we all have in the system,” he said, including such things as faster loading and unloading of rail cars, directional loading and shipping, increased use of multi-car shipping blocks and seven-day-a-week operations at country and terminal elevators.
Malecha agrees everyone has to be accountable if this year’s bigger crop is to be moved to market.
He said the number of rail cars in service is less important than how efficiently those cars are used.
“If we can lower the turn time between Vancouver and the country, that’s what we as an industry need to be focused on,” he said.
The average car turnaround time in the Vancouver corridor in 2003-04 was 17.8 days, compared with the previous three-year average of 19.2 days.
Weisensel said the CWB is most concerned about the ability of the railways to bounce back from the disruptions to grain movement that invariably occur during the course of the year, especially in the winter.
“We know there are going to be events that happen that you can’t predict at this stage, and we have to have the ability to recover and recover quickly.”
He said the railways have told the board they are geared up to do what’s required, but the marketing agency will continue to press them on the issue.
One significant change for this year will be Canadian Pacific Railway’s completion this fall of $160 million worth of track expansion and improvement on the Moose Jaw to Vancouver corridor.
The project is expected to increase CPR’s capacity by about 12 percent, the equivalent of 400 freight cars per day.
CPR spokesperson Ed Greenberg said the railway has added more locomotives and freight crews to handle the expected increase in grain movement this fall. It has also put in place a new management team dedicated solely to grain logistics.
“Our own analysis indicates there’s going to be strong movement, and we’ve been doing everything we can to be as prepared as possible for the new shipping season,” he said.
