Volume 41, Number 5 | FEBRUARY 24, 2015
$4.25
PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER
www.grainews.ca
Vessels kept waiting at port Port Metro Vancouver is on track to break movement records, despite supply chain problems By Lisa Guenther
Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240
photo: courtesy of port metro vancouver
M
ark Hemmes is cautiously optimistic about grain transportation this year, he told CropSphere delegates in Saskatoon in January. The transportation system has set records for grain volumes moved, he said, and generally things are back in balance. But vessel line-ups at port are still a concern, he said, especially in Vancouver. “They’re running out of anchorage in the port,” said Hemmes, founding partner of Quorum Corporation, the agency tasked with monitoring grain movement. In the first nine months of the 2013-14 crop year, over 13 million tonnes of grain were funnelled through Vancouver, according to Quorum’s latest report. This adds up to just over 61 per cent of the entire system’s throughput. During that time, vessels waited an average of 19.1 days in port at Vancouver. The third quarter saw the longest waits, at 25.1 days on average. In an interview, Doug Mills, senior account representative for Port Metro Vancouver, said supply chain problems are putting pressure on the anchorages. “And it causes us to deny ships entry into the anchorage and force them to anchorage off Vancouver Island, for example,” said Mills. “And that causes extra costs into the supply chain because now that vessel has to hire pilots twice. They have to move an extended distance.” Despite anchorage issues, Port Metro Vancouver moved record grain volumes last year, Mills said. And this year, with few weather disruptions or other logistic issues, the port is on track to break more records, Mills said. “It hasn’t been as drastic this year as it was last year,” said Gerry Gault, president of the Grain Workers Union, whose members staff the grain terminals in Vancouver and Prince Rupert. Gault, interviewed in late
Quorum’s latest report says that during the first nine months of the 2013-14 crop year, vessels waited an average of 19.1 days in port at Vancouver. January, said typical waits were 12 to 24 days at that time. He put recent line-ups at anywhere from 15 to 20 vessels.
Grain movement the crux of the problem Quorum’s latest report notes vessel wait times indicate export movement of grain isn’t keeping up with demand. In an email, Hemmes cautioned against looking for simple solutions or causes. But inadequate carrying capacity is part of the problem, the Quorum report notes. “The railways have not been able to supply capacity so as to
meet the demand,” Hemmes said. He added they could not have met the demand of 2013’s crop, given the unexpected size of the crop. They need at least eight to 10 months to gear up for more volume, Hemmes explained. “That said, there has been an ongoing challenge for grain companies to obtain rail capacity and grow volumes,” Hemmes said. Canadian Pacific (CP) cut locomotives and staff in the spring and summer of 2013, when movement slowed, Hemmes said. The cold winter had an impact as well, he added. “The actual fact of the case is, the reason those ships are there
is because the grain’s not getting to port,” said Mills. “And it’s not a cause of grain back-up. It is a result of grain back-up.” Mills said Port Metro Vancouver is undertaking a $9 billion infrastructure project to meet future export demands. But right now the port’s grain terminals have lots of capacity, he said. “Some of them were half-empty through the busiest part of the year.” The crux of the problem is “grain arriving out of sequence and to do with the way the railways are managing the car supply and the timeliness of rail cars being spotted,” said Wade Sobkowich in an interview.
In This Issue
Sobkowich is executive director of the Western Grain Elevators Association. It takes “an awful lot of cars to fill a 55,000 tonne vessel,” Gault said. All the cars have to show up on time, or in advance, for a ship to be serviced, he explained.
Railways respond Both railways provided statements regarding logistics issues at Port Metro Vancouver. “CN is fully in sync with the grain supply chain in Western Canada, where end-to-end balance
» continued on page 4
Wheat & Chaff .................. 2 Features . ........................... 5 Crop Advisor’s Casebook . 8 Columns ............................ 14 Machinery & Shop............. 21
UTV special
scott garvey page 24
Familiar brands at work in Ukraine
Igor Pavlyuk page 26
Cattleman’s Corner .......... 27 FarmLife ............................ 31