CN reports strong grain movement for April

CN's Assistant Vice-President of Grain says demand remained strong right through April.

David Przednowek says we haven't seen that seasonal drop-off for seeding, but that could be because spring seeding has been slow to develop.

"In grain Shipment Week 38, which is our last report that we put out the week of April 14th, we actually moved 741,000 tonnes of grain and processed grain product, and that's a big number for this time of year. We just finished up grain Shipment Week 39 and we had moved over 600,000 tonnes."

Going forward, he expects that we'll start to see demand tail, with just the amount of grain that's able to come into the supply chain as farmers are in the field.

Seeding activities could come to a stand still in many areas if Environment Canada is right, as the majority of the Prairies are expected to see rain or snow over the next few days.

This week's rain or snow will help the moisture profile not just for farmers and ranchers but it will also help relieve the potential fire risk.

"We are into fire season now in, in parts of British Columbia and Alberta. You would have to take a look at the fire risk map, but there are certainly areas that are moderate to high risk of fire. We've seen fire activity along the main line sporadically which has impacted train movements. Again, it's not for a prolonged period of time, but we have had situations where the fire has gotten close to the tracks or it's jumped and therefore we've seen delays in train movement going through the mountains. We've had our fire train Poseidon out and dealing with fire along the main line, so we have had that equipment mobilized."

He points out CN is actively watching four fires, adding that's going to be a key feature of the business going forward to see what happens with the fire season this year.