Canadian Pacific reports it has achieved its best-ever third quarter for Canadian grain and grain products shipments, moving 7.72 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2020 versus 6.97 MMT during the previous third-quarter record in 2014, up 10.8%.
CP also set a new September record for shipping Canadian grain and grain products, moving 2.8 MMT and beating the prior September 2017 record by more than 8.4%.
"We are proud of the steadfast commitment and dedication the CP family has shown throughout the pandemic, which has been critical to Canada's grain supply chain and to our customers," says Joan Hardy, CP Vice-President Sales and Marketing Grain and Fertilizers. "The CP team showed itself ready for this fall's harvest, supporting customers and their supply chains to get grain moving off the combine and to market. Customers tell us the crop that continues to come off the fields is large, and CP is ready to keep it moving."
CP's new hopper cars continue to create additional capacity. CP's average railcar load of wheat for the 2019-2020 crop year was approximately 1.6 metric tonnes greater compared to the 2017-2018 crop year, before CP began adding the cars to its fleet. CP now has 3,200 new high-capacity hopper cars in its fleet. The new hopper cars can carry 15% more volume and 10% more weight compared to the older cars they are replacing. An 8,500-foot High Efficiency Product (HEP) train can carry in excess of 40% more grain than the 7,000-foot train model when combined with the additional capacity of the new hopper cars.
Customers are actively investing in their elevator networks to accommodate 8,500-foot HEP trains. By year-end, more than 30% of the CP-served unit train loaders will be HEP qualified, increasing capacity and efficiency in the grain supply chain for customers and stakeholders.
For details on CP's plan to deliver throughout the winter, see its 2020-2021 Winter Contingency Plan Report.
