REGINA – Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Cargill Ltd. plan to build a $175 million export terminal at Roberts Bank near Vancouver.
The Vancouver Port Corporation announced Dec. 22 it had accepted a proposal by the two grain companies to build a new facility in the last available space at Roberts Bank.
Environmental studies must be completed and partnership details finalized before construction can begin later this year. The terminal should be operating by April, 1999.
Although the two companies are rivals for Prairie grain, Sask Pool chief executive officer Don Loewen said it is clear a partnership with Cargill in the venture is best.
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“We are very fierce competitors in the country, but what we like is what we both bring to the table,” Loewen told reporters. “We both bring grain volume to the table.”
Barb Isman, Cargill assistant vice-president, said putting the companies together strengthens the project.
“Sask Pool has the ability to originate grain,” she said. “We have a lot of international experience. This is a commercial venture and politics isn’t the issue.”
The companies will share equally the cost of the 150,000-tonne facility.
Pool president Leroy Larsen said the 65-acre site will “give us a space where we can move in fully-cleaned unit trains, unload them and direct hit them into a boat.”
The terminal will have the newest technology along with traditional cleaning and drying capability, Larsen said. It will handle between 3.5 and four million tonnes annually, have deep water access and be served by both Canadian railways and Burlington Northern.
Grain goes west
Larsen said strong Pacific Rim markets and the loss of the Crow Benefit mean more grain will be moving west. The pool closed one of its Thunder Bay terminals earlier this year.
The pool and Cargill are partners with several other grain companies in Prince Rupert Grain Ltd. No other partnerships between the two are planned, but Isman said it is possible in the future.
“One way for a country like ours to succeed in an international marketplace is through joint ventures or strategic alliances,” she said.
