Winnipeg, June 7 – The amount of grain shipped from the Port of Thunder Bay so far this season is down from last year, but the port’s head says this year is a reversion to normal.
The port started shipping on March 26 and as of May 31 has moved 1.5 million tonnes of cargo, compared with 1.8 million in the same period last year.
“We’ve had two very strong years back to back, so we’re down from those years,” said Thunder Bay Port Authority chief executive officer Tim Heney.
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The amount of grain moved by the port can be limited by competition between eastern and western supply chains, availability of ships and the amount of exports to the U.S.
In April this year the port moved 643,003 tonnes of grain, down from 688,223 in the same month last year.
In May the port moved 729,000 tonnes, down from 1.1 million tonnes last year in the same month.
Movement this year is in line with the five-year-average, but it’s hard to tell what coming months will hold, Heney said.
The months leading into harvest are often slower, he added. Movement picks up when new-crop becomes available.
“All indications are it’ll be large. The last three harvests were the biggest three in Canada,” Heney said.
All it takes is one good month to bring the port back up to par with stronger years, as the port has the largest grain storage capacity in North America.
“You can make up so much tonnage, if there’s a big push you can bounce from 500,000 to 1.3 million in one month,” Heney said.
Structural changes, such as the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk, have allowed the port to become more successful in recent years, Heney said.
In 2012 the Canadian Wheat Board lost its monopoly on wheat exports and became CWB, and later G3 Canada Ltd.
“That’s been positive for us, up until this point,” Heney said.
Heney would like the port to move a million tonnes of grain per month through the shipping season.
“We consider that a pretty good number, because then you end up the year around nine million tonnes,” he said.
The port is expected to operate until Jan. 15 when the lakes freeze over.
