Canada Markets

Activity is seen picking up in the Thunder Bay corridor this week, with the AG Transport Coalition reporting showing 77 cars unloaded on March 3, the first day of week 32, which is up from zero on this day one week ago. As well, there were 222 cars on hand, which is up from 101 reported for the week prior.

Focus on moving grain east has been diminished. As seen on the attached chart, grain stocks instore Thunder Bay as of week 30 have fallen for four consecutive years, with the 2023-24 week 30 volume reported at 240,900 metric tons (mt). This volume is down 52.2% from the five-year average for this week.

Looking at select crops, durum stocks of 23,700 mt are down 75% from the five-year average, canola stocks of 31,300 mt are down 77.8% from average and wheat stocks of 146,600 mt are down 23.5% from average.

We may expect a soft start to the 2024 shipping season.

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

Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CliffJamieson.

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