MarketsFarm — Canada’s two largest railways both reported new highs in grain movement for March and for their first fiscal quarters.
Canadian National Railway (CN) announced Monday it had moved 2.95 million tonnes of grain last month, beating the previous March record of 2.74 million transported last year. It was also the 13th straight month CN broke its own monthly grain movement record.
During its first quarter, despite deliveries being affected by adverse weather, 8.2 million tonnes were moved by CN, topping its previous Q1 record of seven million in 2017. The total was also more than 25 per cent higher than the three-year average of 6.5 million.
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CN has moved 22.7 million tonnes of grain during the 2020-21 crop year so far, 3.6 million more than the previous year-to-date record from the 2018-19 crop year.
“Since the beginning of 2021, Canadian grain farmers, along with all of our supply chain partners, have worked closely with CN’s railroaders to deliver record grain performance despite the pandemic and the very difficult operating conditions we faced in February,” CN senior vice-president James Cairns said in a release.
Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), meanwhile, reported it had moved 2.53 million tonnes of grain from February 28 to March 27, according to its own weekly results.
In March 2020, CP moved 2.21 million tonnes of grain. The railway also said grain movement is 14.5 per cent ahead of last year’s crop year-to-date. During its first quarter, 6.62 million tonnes were transported, 12.6 per cent more than in its 2020 Q1.
— Compiled by Adam Peleshaty for MarketsFarm.
