Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) hauled an all-time company record of Canadian grain and grain products in November, the company said on Dec. 2.
The railway moved 2.74 million metric tonnes (mmt), a monthly record that’s higher than the previous all-time record of 2.66 mmt in November.
The record volumes come as CP utilizes its 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product (HEP) train model that’s being used in tandem with customer investments at grain terminals. CP has said previously that it expects that more than 20% of CP’s Canadian grain volume will move using this train model by the end of the crop year in July 2020.
CP has also said it plans to invest C$500 million in 5,900 new high-capacity hoppers cars, with 1,900 new hopper cars already available and another 1,400 hopper cars expected by the end of 2020. The new hopper cars can load up to 10% more grain by weight and 15% more by volume when compared to the older cars that are being replaced.
“CP achieved great things last month for the Canadian grain supply chain in close collaboration with our trusted supply chain enablers,” said Joan Hardy, CP’s vice president of sales and marketing for grain and fertilizers.
In addition to announcing its monthly grain volume record yesterday, CP also said it unloaded an all-time weekly record of grain shipments at the Port of Thunder Bay in Ontario. Terminals at Thunder Bay unloaded 2,216 railcars during the week of Nov. 18-24, beating the previous weekly record of 2,144 carloads in the fall of 2017.
CP also said it held an Alberta Agricultural Roundtable on Nov. 22 to discuss expanded capacity in the grain supply and its HEP train model.
The roundtable, which was an effort to align participants around CP’s HEP train model, included agricultural industry representatives; senior government leaders, including Alberta ministers, the Honourable Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Honourable Ric McIver, Minister of Transportation and Member of Parliament for Red Deer-Mountainview Earl Dreeshen; and CP representatives from the operations and sales and marketing teams, CP said.
“The CP team will keep open the lines of communication with shippers and government leaders as we push to become even more effective and efficient to meet the growing needs of Canada’s agricultural sector,” Hardy said.
