Grain transportation on track this week

The weekly summary from Western Canada’s grain handling and transportation monitor reports relatively smooth operation throughout the system. Full text is below:

Stocks

• Country stocks remained at 2.7MMT this week, utilizing 59% of the system’s working capacity. Space in country elevators is good. Producer deliveries increased to 0.6 MMT in week 49.
• Total western port terminal stocks decreased to 1.0 MMT this week, utilizing 57% of the working capacity.

Railway Car Supply
• Railcar allocation plans are supplied by CN to week 51 of the 2015-16 grain year. Shippers report that rail service and order fulfillment continues to meet demand to Western Ports.

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Port Unloads 
• Total western port unloads are approximately equal to the 4-week rolling average and 16% lower than week 49 last year.
• West Coast unloads were 4,371 cars (Vancouver 3,193 and Prince Rupert 1,178), 8% lower than the 4-week
rolling average and 15% lower than week 49 last year.
• Thunder Bay terminals unloaded 1,756 cars, 29% higher than the 4-week rolling average and 11% lower than week 49 last year.
• Year-to-date total western port unloads are 0.4% lower than the same period last year. The corresponding
tonnage is 0.6% lower.
• The total average terminal out of car time (OCT) increased to 15.3% from 11.7% in the previous week. This
week’s OCT was 14.5% in Vancouver, and 2.8% in Thunder Bay. Prince Rupert has not reported Out of Car time in week 49.

Shipments:

• Vessels Cleared from Vancouver were 10, and from Prince Rupert were 2 in week 50.
• Year-to-date western Canadian shipments from port terminal elevators during week 49 are 4% lower than the same period last year and 14% higher than the 5-year average.

Vessel lineups
• Week 49 lineup at Vancouver increased to a total of 10 vessels (The current one-year average at Vancouver is 16 vessels).
• At Prince Rupert, the vessel count increased to a total of 2 vessels(The current one-year average at Prince Rupert is 3 vessels).