Grain movement is picking up for CPKC

CPKC is seeing an increase in grain movement. 

CPKC's Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Bulk Elizabeth Hucker says the crop year got off to a slow start as far as grain movement but things are starting to pick up. 

In the last couple of weeks, CPKC has seen an increase in grain heading to the West Coast, Eastern Canada and the U.S. 

“It was encouraging and exciting to see shipments to Thunder Bay start to resume earlier than what I would say is normal. I think that's an indication of demand for Canadian products, which we've been closely monitoring this crop year and has been below what we committed to the government in our grain plan earlier in the crop year.” 

The locks at Thunder Bay are expected to open within the next few weeks. 

CPKC’s car order fulfillment has been strong in the prairies, however, they were negatively impacted by the winter conditions over the last couple of weeks. 

She says customer feedback has been positive this crop year relating to their efforts to fill their orders and meet the supply-demand at the port. 

Overall, she notes it’s been a decent winter with mild conditions through December. 

"There was a cold snap in January. February and March we've had a lot of snow, but I would say that we are operating very well through our Western corridor and across our network.”