Rail Car Backlog Being Felt In P.G.
Pulp is being stockpiled on Northwood Pulpmill property – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Pulp, that would normally be on its way from the Northwood Pulpmill in Prince George to customers, is being stockpiled at that mill. The stockpile has been covered with tarps to protect it from inclement weather.
The reason for the stockpiling is a lack of CN rail cars for shipment It is a situation Canfor’s Vice President Brand and External Relations, Christine Kennedy, says is a direct result of the weather “Canfor has been affected by weather-related rail car availability resulting from the severe winter weather that impacted much of the country for the last several months.”
Kennedy says the company works closely with CN “ and we appreciate that their people are doing everything they can to address car availability, for Canfor and for other producers."
There is no quick solution expected says Kennedy “We expect the process of clearing the inventory backlog will take a couple of months.”
The stockpiling of product has not had any impact on production levels, and none is expected.
Rail car availability is also playing a part in the shutdown of the Canfor sawmill in Quesnel. Several people will be staying on the Canfor payroll at that operation until stockpiled product can be loaded on to rail cars when those cars become available.
Comments
CN is horrible. Since they are the only game in town we have no choice and it shows. Their service has been lousy since they took over, well before the weather issues. Showing up late or not at all, bringing in the wrong cars, bringing back loaded ones, over charging for switches etc. at least it’s only a 99 year lease…….
At least with no cars we don’t have to worry about more derails…
and governments have actually ignored that and contemplaited allowing them to pack crude oil from Alberta to the coast…. sheeeeeesh
PVal:
Correction, the CN “lease” of BC Rail was for 999 years, not 99 years…
Ouch herbster, even worse
Please stop with the snide remarks about cn lest “findme” comes out of hiding to spout some nonsense about not understanding how the economy works.
Well there are always trucks available so there is no problem. Don’t feel sorry for Canfor one bit. If they don’t want to ship by truck when rail is such a poor way to ship when you consider customer service then let it rot on the ground.
time out. There are no trucks available for shipments to the USA where 70% of the lumber and woodpulp produced in BC goes.
The shear volume of production of pulp, paper, and lumber in this area requires a good supply of rail cars. You can do some trucking to Vancouver/Squamish, however with the dock strike the last few weeks, even that possibility has been compromised.
P Val is right. Service from CN (which was always somewhat lousy) went from bad to worse with their leasing of the BC Rail.
They are now a monopoly in this area, and it shows.
Trucks are not the answer for most cases but are definitely the answer in some instances.
Btw during the heavy snow storms in Chicago (a main hub for train traffic ) there were over 300,000 railcards stuck there. During that period it was understandable for the shortage, but that was two months ago.
But it’s just out and out horrible service now.
With the Government threatening $100,000.00 per day if the railways do not move grain, it is conceivable that they have shifted their efforts to grain movement to the detriment of pulp, paper, and lumber.
No shortage yet of rail cars to move new automobiles? Film at 11.
This is just more fallout from the Liberal sell-off of BC Rail. Once our rail cars were being dispatched by the American-owned CN out of Chicago, there was no longer any priority to help out Canadian lumber producers.
Canfor is pissed with CN service, really pissed. However, I recall their shippers at the BC Rail sale meetings arguing for the demise of BC Rail. You reap what you sew, and you have given them a monopoly in the North.
On a side note, will we ever have answers about the scams surrounding said sale? We paid the guilty guys legal bills, conveniently before the premier was to take the stand.
Funny while canfor was backing CN to get this monopoly in BC they went out and bought 100 (I think) box cars of their own to put on CNs newly monopolized rails. Not working so good for them now is it. As was stated earlier you reap what you sow.
And cue the whineing.
Why whine?
More work for the guys, local guys. more OT. Sure its more work organizing the stockpiles, and protecting them from the elements, but the paycheck at the end of the day will benefit.
Then supply & demand will take over, if wide spread enough could push the price of the materials up, and beefs up the bottom line for Canfor. Then in turn, that can lead to more investments.
i dont see the downside.
All the Harper ,Christy critics are quiet about the NDP expenses.
Probably focused on oil shipments instead of lumber
Caused by global warming.
Blame Harper. Always works.
Talsnic. This pulp and paper is stored in warehouses all over Prince George, and the lower mainland, in addition some is being trucked to Vancouver on super b flat decks.
So we are looking at a huge costs in double handling, warehousing, transportation, possible loss of sales, etc;
That’s the downside.
The backlog isn’t just in PG, its all over Canada. Slow grain transport in a choked rail system to blame says farmers who still haven’t been paid for last year’s crops.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/sask-farmers-still-waiting-to-cash-in-on-bumper-crop-1.2505487
DPJ is right, CN’s focus has been on oil transport above all other commodities.
This is a picture of CN oil tanker cars:
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/YavUHQkF_iY/0.jpg
This is a graph that show oil and petroleum tanker car loads have doubled in the last year, from 3% to 6%.
http://vipmedia.globalnews.ca/2014/02/per-cent-of-rail-carloads.jpg?w=513&h=323&crop=1
http://globalnews.ca/news/1124680/are-railways-to-blame-for-drop-in-grain-deliveries/
Peeps, do you even bother to read any of the articles that you provide links to? It seems like you are far too busy googling anything and everything to make yourself appear intelligent(?).
We know that you hate Harper, the Conservatives, the Provincial Liberals, Corporations and “Big” Oil, but if you took the time to actually read more than just the headlines of some of the things that you link to, you might find that not everything supports your assertions. Your last link might be one of those times!
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