CN's assistant vice president of grain David Przednowek says they set a new record for grain shipments out of Western Canada in February. 

"We shipped 2.4 million tonnes of grain and processed grain products during the month. Volumes that we shipped by container, of course, in addition to that. The previous record best February was 2.2 million tons back in February 2021."

He says within the month of February, they had three weeks in a row, grain shipment weeks 27-28-29. where they actually set individual records for those shipment weeks.

Over the course of the crop year, through 31 weeks, they've had 11 individual weeks where CN reported record shipment volumes.

Last week, during grain shipment week 31, CN moved over 620 thousand metric tonnes of grain and processed grain products moving to port.

Przednowek says they did see some challenges at port that impacted operations.

"Even though we had a really, really strong week, there's still the issues that pop up in the supply chain. In week 31, that was certainly not the exception. Prince Rupert grain terminal which started experiencing fluidity issues and terminal productivity issues at the back end of week 29 was just starting to come out of it. You know, it was still a week where they were still trying to recover from those issues. The rain did what it has done to the supply chain in the Port of Vancouver, where we saw, some impacts of the rain preventing loading and that of course, results in limited terminal space. We can't move grain forward to get in and unload."

He says all things considered, those were minor impacts overall.

Przednowek says overall, CN has consistently been supplying 90 to 100 per cent of car order fulfillment in the country that have been planned and accepted by CN, or within one to three days of the want week requested.

He notes its also important to understand the why of those cars that wouldn't have been supplied in the want week requested.

"What we've seen consistently is that it's been related to terminal productivity issues or issues at country elevator origin."

Przednowek says the good news is if something hasn't been supplied, they've been able to recover it pretty quick.

To hear Glenda-Lee's discussion with CN's assistant vice president of grain David Przednowek click on the link below.