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The Port of Churchill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is handling larger ships — good business-boosting news for OmniTRAX Inc. and its Hudson Bay Port Co. and Hudson Bay Railway Co.
The port Oct. 3 handled its largest-ever vessel, the MV Invader, which was loaded with 56,100 tons of wheat and departed for Egypt.
The port routinely has handled vessels with a 30,000-ton capacity, but recent facility upgrades now enable the port to handle panamax-size vessels, which can carry more than 55,000 tons.
Hudson Bay Railway, which moves grain to and from the port, expects to provide more cars for loading and unloading.
"Before, orders of this size would always have gone to other ports, such as Thunderbay or Montreal," says OmniTRAX spokeswoman Genevieve Young. "Now that the port has the capacity to handle a vessel this size, the cars needed to fill the orders would logically increase."
OmniTRAX, which owns and operates the port through Hudson Bay Port Co., plans to aggressively market panamax-size vessels to commodity shippers in European, Middle Eastern and North African markets, relying on the port's North American trade-corridor location and prime access to Western Canadian grain producers.
— Jeff Stagl