New terminal owners see good year ahead

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Published: August 9, 2007

The new kid on the block at the Port of Vancouver is looking forward to a strong rookie season.

Alliance Grain Terminal Ltd. took over operation of the old United Grain Growers terminal June 30, after buying the 102,070 tonne capacity facility from Agricore United.

Despite growing concern about grain production in the heat-ravaged southern Prairies, the company is anticipating steady grain movement through the facility in 2007-08.

“We’re hopeful to have handlings of 1.6 to 1.8 million tonnes move through the terminal,” said company spokesperson Keith Bruch, vice-president of grain operations for Paterson Globalfoods.

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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million

That would probably be slightly more than the terminal handled in recent years as an AU facility, he added.

“It hasn’t been used to capacity in the last few years,” said Bruch, adding the new owners would eventually like to get throughput up to two million tonnes or more.

Paterson is one of six prairie grain companies that banded together to buy the facility from AU.

The other shareholders of Alliance Terminal are Parrish and Heimbecker, Weyburn Inland Terminal, North West Terminal, Prairie West Terminal and Great Sandhills Terminal Marketing Centre.

The new owners plan to focus the terminal’s business on wheat. In recent years it has handled mainly canola and malting barley.

Bruch is optimistic about the coming year despite the fact that the owner companies collect most of their wheat from the southern Prairies.

“There has been a bit of yield loss with the heat, but it’s not a significant concern at this time,” he said.

The sale was made under the auspices of a trustee appointed by the federal Competition Bureau, which in 2002 ordered AU to sell the facility.

The purchase price has not been released, nor has the ownership percentage held by the six shareholders.

Alliance’s board of directors is made up of two members from P & H, two from Paterson and two from the four single-point companies.

The chief executive officer is David Kushnier, who previously worked at CaWasecaNeigha4escadia Terminal.

The companies bought the terminal to ensure access to grain handling services at the port, given the recent merger between AU and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and uncertainty over the future of the Canadian Wheat Board.

When they made the purchase, they were operating under the name Terminal West.

However, that name was rejected by the federal agency that registers corporate names because it was too similar to an existing company.

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Adrian Ewins

Saskatoon newsroom

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