WINNIPEG (Reuters) – Omnitrax Inc., the shipping company that runs Canada’s sub-Arctic port of Churchill, Man., has forecast a grain handling target of 500,000 tonnes for 2005, up about 25 percent from last year’s total.
The company loaded its first shipment of 30,000 tonnes of wheat bound for Nigeria on July 31. There are eight more grain vessels booked for the port, Omnitrax said in a News release
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Last year, Omnitrax had hoped to ship 600,000 tonnes of grain through Churchill, located about 1,700 kilometres north of Winnipeg, but handled only about 400,000 tonnes because of a late harvest.
The port, which is open from July until mid-November, handled 620,000 tonnes of grain in 2003 and a record of 711,000 tonnes in 2000. The port needs to handle about one million tonnes per year to be profitable.
Omnitrax wants to diversify traffic through the port to include machinery and refined petroleum products.
The company is owned by Broe Co. of Denver, Colorado.
