Canada Markets

As the railways move towards their combined one million metric tonnes of weekly grain movement, concerns remain that the railways can continue to favor certain shipping lanes and shipping regions in order to meet their goals, while other areas may continue to struggle for movement.

Social media communications suggest the same, that certain shipping points located in convenient locations or with unit-train shipping capabilities are being serviced well, as compared to smaller plants that may be situated at not as convenient locations. At the same time, the railways have intentionally reduced U.S. movement due to car cycle times related to congestion in U.S. shipping lanes, leaving some shippers out of luck in terms of meeting commitments to U.S. buyers.

The attached chart shows that while licensed primary elevator shipping has increased in recent weeks, the largest gains are seen in Manitoba, where shipping has ramped up to Thunder Bay, while Alberta has benefit most in terms of western movement, due to its closer proximity to West Coast ports and quicker turn-around times. In data sourced from the Grains Statistics Weekly, two of the past four shipping weeks, shipping from Alberta has come close to meeting the volume shipped from Saskatchewan plants.

While producers across the Prairies look forward to seeing supplies tighten, which will in turn force basis levels to narrow as cash markets come closer to resembling the export markets, it does appear as if this will happen quicker in certain areas of the Prairies as opposed to others.

Cliff Jamieson can be reached at cliff.jamieson@dtn.com

Follow Cliff Jamieson on Twitter @CliffJamieson

(ES)

© Copyright 2014 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.