Elevator companies are not reporting major problems as the shipping season shapes up to be a ‘banner year.’
WESTERN PRODUCER — Shipments of grains and oilseeds continue to move briskly through west coast export terminals, thanks to mild winter weather and steady deliveries by Canada’s major railway companies.
“Things have been going pretty smoothly, knock on wood,” said Mark Hemmes, president of Quorum Corp., the company that monitors Canada’s prairie grain-handling and transportation system on behalf of the federal government.
“There have been a few little things that… are causing some issues, but we haven’t had any floods, we haven’t had any fires, and we haven’t had any major derailments or line outages.”
Hemmes said the 2022-23 shipping season is shaping up to be a “banner year,” barring unexpected disruptions over the next five months.
After 28 weeks in the current marketing year — just a little past the halfway mark — nearly 200,000 car loads of grains and oilseeds have been unloaded at British Columbia ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, according to grain monitoring program statistics.
By comparison, fewer than 124,000 car loads had been unloaded at the same time last year. The three-year average after Week 28 is around 178,000 car loads.
In terms of the grain volume leaving those export terminals, Vancouver and Prince Rupert are 67 percent ahead of last year’s pace and 13 percent ahead of the three-year average, Quorum data shows.
After 28 weeks, total outbound shipments from west coast terminals exceeded 19.1 million tonnes, up from 11.5 million tonnes in 2021-22.
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