In year-end crop report, CN calls for
federal infrastructure investment for Vancouver's North Shore
MONTREAL, Aug. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - CN (TSX: CNR)
(NYSE:CNI) announced today it moved a record 21.8 million metric
tonnes of Western Canadian grain during the 2016-17 crop year.
"Through innovation, collaboration and improved communication
with our supply chain partners, CN moved more grain in a single
crop year than ever before," said Doug MacDonald, CN vice president
of bulk. "We did this by further developing our supply chain
ingenuity with our partners to meet demand, resulting in
improvements in the use of equipment and better than ever
efficiencies in size of trains."
In a year-end grain report published today, CN outlined other
key highlights from the crop year, including:
- Shipping seven per cent more tonnage than the prior
three-year-average
- Beating the one-year record set in 2014-15 by two per cent
- Six new monthly shipping records between the peak months of
September and March when grain prices are highest
- Introduction of 200-car grain trains to improve efficiency and
turn equipment back to the Prairies faster
- Expanded use of distributed power and air repeater cars to
extend train length and improve train braking during extreme
weather winter months
COMMERCIAL AGREEMENTS
"We gave our customers what
they were looking for by significantly expanding our commercial
product offering," said MacDonald.
"CN expanded commercial agreements that guarantee car supply in
advance to our customers both large and small. This
commercially-driven innovation includes reciprocal penalties which
drive accountability for both shippers and CN, and allows our
customers to make market-based decisions."
Last crop year, customers secured approximately 70 per cent of
CN's car supply in advance under commercial agreements subject to
car commitment guarantees.
INVESTMENTS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Grain companies have
continued to invest in the supply chain with the construction of
nine new country elevators and another seven announced with
completion dates in the next 18 months.
More rail capacity is needed in Vancouver to meet forecasted demand driven by
new and ongoing investment in export grain terminals.
Said MacDonald, "Vancouver is a vital trade-oriented Canadian
gateway and should be a top investment priority for the
government's new national transportation corridor infrastructure
fund."
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2017-18 CROP YEAR
Working with our
supply chain partners, CN continues to look for every opportunity
to bring even more efficiency to the grain transportation
network.
For more information and to download the full year-end grain
report visit cn.ca/grain. Radio stations are also invited to
download a special edition of the CN Grain Insight podcast to air
in part or in its entirety.
CN is a true backbone of the economy whose team of approximately
23,000 railroaders transports more than C$250 billion worth of goods annually for a wide
range of business sectors, ranging from resource products to
manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail network of
approximately 20,000 route-miles spanning Canada and mid-America. CN – Canadian National
Railway Company, along with its operating railway subsidiaries –
serves the cities and ports of Vancouver, Prince
Rupert, B.C., Montreal,
Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of
Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth,
Minn./Superior, Wis., and
Jackson, Miss., with connections
to all points in North America.
For more information about CN, visit the company's website at
www.cn.ca.
SOURCE CN