Canada Markets

Both of Canada's railways have noted the impact of the cold weather in December as being the start of the difficult period faced in grain shipping when movement slipped drastically. Meanwhile, statements made by CN has minimized the impact of oil movement cutting into grain movement, suggesting crude makes up a mere 2% of their total shipping program, yet producers across the Prairies note the oil cars moving down the tracks while grain sits.

Statistics Canada released its December Monthly Car Loading report this morning, which clearly suggests the cold December didn't seem to bite into oil movement as it did for the grains. Data indicates that Canada shipped 16,031 cars of fuel oils and crude petroleum, up from the 15,672 cars shipped in November and also above the 12,302 cars shipped in December 2012.

In total, 164,221 cars were shipped in 2013, which is 45% higher than the number of cars shipped in 2012. A recent study contacted by the U.S. State Department suggests that Canada's oil loading capabilities will swell by at least 65% by the end of 2014 to 1.1 million barrels/day, a volume which could require an increasing volume of rail traffic.

For the past two months, Statistics Canada has warned readers that the Monthly Railway Carloadings report (52-001-X) will no longer be issued in 2014. A call to the StatsCan office suggested that the monthly surveys and the corresponding data may or may not be available going forward, although confirmation has just arrived suggesting that the data will continue to be made available in CANSIM table 404-0002.

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

(ES)

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