Loading grain into vessel (photo courtesy Port of Churchill)

 


The last ship of the season left the Port of Churchill on Tuesday.

The Canadian Wheat Board shipped 600 thousand tonnes of wheat and durum through the port this year, the second highest volume in more than 30 years.

"We had a pretty strong season right through," says David Przednowek, senior manager of ocean freight and terminal operations with the CWB. "Churchill makes sense because its so close to tidewater relative to any other port in Canada."

He says by shipping more grain through Churchill, the CWB can reduce its internal transportation costs. "If you ship the grain to Thunder Bay, load it onto a laker, move it down to the seaway, unload into a transfer elevator in the St. Lawrence and then load it onto an export boat, it's pretty expensive relative to having just one stop in Churchill."

In total, 20 vessels destined for Europe, Africa and the Americas loaded with wheat or durum at the port this season. The Nikator left the port on Tuesday with 26 thousand tonnes of spring wheat bound for West Africa. The shipping season started on July 29th, when the Federal Danube arrived to take durum to Europe.

"The main driver at Churchill is the limited shipping season. You have to turn the space in the terminal as fast as you can. You can't have a lot of inventory sitting there...making sure you have ships ready to load right through," says Przednowek. "That's really the main driver determining how much grain we ship."

In 2007, the Board shipped 621 thousand tonnes of grain through Churchill. That remains the largest amount to pass through the port since 1977, when 710 thousand tonnes of wheat were shipped, mainly to the former Soviet Union.

A total of 43 thousand tonnes of canola and, for the first time ever, 12 thousand tonnes of peas were also shipped through the port this year.

~ Friday, November 5, 2010 ~