CP reports record grain movement since start of 2018-19 crop year

As of the end of May, Canadian Pacific (CP) moved 22.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of Canadian grain and grain products since the start of the 2018-2019 crop year, according to a news release.

“Since August of last year, we have moved approximately 500,000 metric tonnes more grain than ever before, bettering our record at this time back in the 2015-2016 crop year,” says Joan Hardy, CP vice-president of sales and marketing, grain and fertilizers.

Both the months of April and May were record-breaking for the company. For May 2019, CP moved 15 MMT of grain which broke the previous record set back in the 2016-17 crop year by five per cent. April was an all-time record month for Canadian grain and grain products as CP moved 2.643 MMT, bettering the previous record from October 2018.

“We continue to innovate in close collaboration with our customers and supply chain enablers, and we look forward to delivering for farmers and the North American economy as we close out this crop year and prepare for the next.”

According to a new release, in November of last year, the company broke its previous record for carloads of Western Canadian grain and grain products shipped to the Port of Vancouver in a single month, with 17,150.

As more than 1,000 high-capacity hopper cars will be added to CP’s fleet by the end of the year, the total of new hopper cars will total more than 1,900. Shippers will be able to load up to 10 per cent more grain in these cars compared to the older, less efficient hopper cars CP is replacing, the company says.

Meanwhile, construction of the company’s High Efficiency Product (HEP) train model is currently taking place at five CP-served facilities. Come the fall, those facilities will be up and running, to join the already seven existing places that have the HEP 8,500-foot loop track.

“By the spring of next year, 20 percent of CP’s unit train elevator network will be loading the highly-efficient 8,500-foot HEP trains, which, coupled with the new hopper cars, can move up to 44 percent more grain per train,” says Hardy.

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