CN, CP set grain-haul records in 2020-21 crop year

CN and Canadian Pacific yesterday announced they set new records for Canadian grain moved during the 2020-21 crop year.

CN officials said the Class I set a new record for the movement of Canadian grain and processed grain products via carload with more than 31 million metric tons (MMT) moved during the 2020-2021 crop year. CN also filed and published its 2021-2022 grain plan on July 30.

The new CN record exceeds the previous record for carload movement of 29.4 MMT set in the 2019–2020 crop year. CN also moved more than 1.1 MMT of grain from western Canada via containers, with grain volumes moved from eastern Canada in addition to these levels, CN officials said in a press release.

"CN's grain movement has been resilient during the pandemic, achieving 14 straight months of Canadian grain volume shipment records. We recognize that growing conditions across much of the Prairies have been very challenging as many producers face extremely hot and dry weather this year," said CN President and CEO JJ Ruest.

In May 2021, CN announced its plans to acquire 1,000 new-generation, high-capacity, grain hopper cars.

Meanwhile, CP announced it it hauled more Canadian grain and grain products in the 2020–2021 crop production year than any other crop year during CP’s 140-year history.

CP moved 30.62 MMT this crop year, exceeding last year’s record of 29.52 MMT by 1.10 MMT, or 3.7%. This is the fourth consecutive year that CP has broken its annual movement record. Including grain moved in containers, CP moved a total of 31.21 MMT, up 3.4 percent from last crop year, CP officials said in a press release.

"The challenge created by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 17 months has underpinned the value of strong communication and supply chain collaboration. Despite a sharp reduction in demand this spring, CP and our customers have again broken our movement record, and we celebrate that achievement across the supply chain," said Joan Hardy, CP vice president of sales and marketing, grain and fertilizers.

CP attributed the success of the grain year in part to the efficiency of the 8,500-foot high efficiency product (HEP) train model and investments made by CP’s customers. An 8,500-foot HEP train can carry in excess of 40% more grain than the 7,000-foot train model when combined with the additional capacity of CP’s new high-efficiency hopper cars.

Customers are actively investing in their elevator networks to accommodate 8,500-foot trains, CP officials said. Today, CP serves 25 elevators qualified to load 8,500-foot HEP trains, 13 of which became qualified during the 2020–2021 crop year. By the end of 2021, more than 40% of the CP-served unit train loaders will be 8,500-foot HEP qualified, increasing capacity and efficiency in the grain supply chain for customers and stakeholders.