CPKC sees seasonal slowdown in grain movement

With spring seeding operations underway across the prairies, grain movement to port has slowed down.

The assistant vice-president of CPKC (Canadian Pacific Kansas City) Elizabeth Hucker says in April they moved about 2.3 million metric tons of Canadian grain and grain products, with more than 994,000 metric tons moved in the last couple of weeks. 

"What I would say about that mix is it's been very strong volumes to Thunder Bay. Less demand and  less volume to Vancouver and that current demand continues to be significantly below the capacity CPKC has resourced for on our rail networks specific to the transportation of Canadian grain."

As a result of the lower grain capacity right now CPKC has sidelined some grain cars, Hucker expects to see grain volumes increase again in mid-June once seeding operations are complete.