The number of rail cars unloaded at each of Canada’s major grain ports varies as whether they’re ahead of last year’s pace, according to a report from Quorum Corp.
On the West Coast, terminal unloads at Vancouver jumped 22 percent during Week 47 of the 2019-20 crop year, compared to the same week in 2018-19. There were 5,708 cars emptied as opposed to 4,680 a year ago.
At Prince Rupert, there was a decline of nine percent from 1,356 during Week 47 a year ago to 1,239 now. Overall for the West Coast, unloads were up 15 percent year over year.
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At Thunder Bay, unloads slipped seven percent. There were 1,703 rail cars unloaded in week 47 this year compared to 1,823 for the same week in 2018-19.
Vancouver and Thunder Bay are currently ahead of their pace last year, but Prince Rupert is behind.
Quorum reported 237,171 rail cars have been unloaded at Vancouver at this point in the 2019-20 crop year, which makes for a three percent increase. By week 47 last year, there were 230,250 unloads.
A year ago at Prince Rupert 58,110 cars had been emptied, but the port is at 52,856 this year, for a decline of nine percent. Combined, the west coast ports are slightly ahead of last year by one percent.
There’s been a 15 percent jump at Thunder Bay, with year-to-date currently at 80,558 rail cars. In 2018-19, 70,048 cars had been unloaded.
Vancouver has unloaded nearly 21.87 million tonnes of grain in 2019-20, which makes for a four percent increase over the same point the previous year. Prince Rupert is down about 10 percent with 4.85 million tonnes of grain emptied from rail cars.
Thunder Bay has unloaded approximately 7.52 million tonnes of grain to this point in the 2019-20 crop year, which is 15 percent more than 6.52 million tonnes in 2018-19.
