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Grain
Canadian Pacific announces record-breaking grain haul
August 17, 2020 By Top Crop Manager
Canadian Pacific (CP) recently announced it hauled more Canadian grain and grain products in the 2019-2020 crop production year than any other in its 139-year history. In total, CP moved 29.52 million metric tonnes (MMT) this crop year, exceeding last year’s record of 26.77 MMT by 2.75 MMT, or 10 per cent.
“The world depends on Canadian farmers for food and we understand the important role CP and the grain supply chain play in getting crops to market,” said Keith Creel, CP’s president and CEO. “I am immensely proud of the CP family and the entire grain supply chain in delivering a second consecutive crop-year record, and by such a significant margin.”
In addition to the record crop year, CP also announced its best-ever July for transporting Canadian grain and grain products, with 2.58 MMT hauled. The July record is CP’s ninth monthly record set during the 2019-2020 crop year.
This year’s successes were possible due to the efficiency of the 8,500-foot high efficiency product (HEP) train model. An 8,500-foot HEP train can carry in excess of 40 per cent more grain than the 7,000-foot train model when combined with the additional capacity of CP’s new high-efficiency hopper cars.
Shipping containers also played an important role in exporting Canada’s crop. This year, CP moved more than 650,000 metric tonnes of western Canadian grain to export markets in containers. With containerized grain included in the total, CP transported more than 30 MMT during the crop year.
“With CP’s 8,500-foot HEP train model, Viterra can move more grain with each train, creating efficiencies for the whole supply chain,” said Kyle Jeworski, president and CEO of Viterra.
CP continues to take delivery of high-capacity grain hopper cars as part of a half-billion-dollar commitment in 2018 to purchase 5,900 of the newest-generation railcars. The new cars can carry 10 per cent more grain by weight and 15 per cent more by volume than the older Government of Canada cars they are replacing; more than 2,900 are now in service. As a result of this capacity upgrade, the amount of grain CP was able to transport in each railcar increased by 1 metric tonne from the previous year.
