Wood Products Pile Up as Companies Wait for Rail Cars
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Conifex product stacks on the left,Canfor product stacks on the right, waiting for rail cars for shipment – photos 250News
Prince George, B.C.- Pallets and pallets of ready to ship lumber are being stored in Prince George, waiting to be shipped when rail cars become available.
The product is being stored at the CN Intermodal yard, the former Winton Global site, even the old Rustad sawmill site looks like its back in production with the amount of ready to ship product sitting on the property.
No one forest products company has been spared.
The backlog has been created by a shortage of rail cars. It is the same issue which forced the stockpiling of pulp we wrote about last month (see previous story)
John Brink, owner of Brink Forest Products on River Road says he has never seen a situation like this “I have been here for 50 years, and 40 years in the business and this is the worst I have ever seen.” Brink says he is concerned that if product doesn’t start to move soon, it will negatively impact his company’s ability to operate.
Pat Bell, Vice President of Conifex, which has mills in both Mackenzie and Ft. St. James, says his company has been able to ship product through the Prince Rupert Port, but there is no doubt there is a backlog “We will have incremental volume probably into June, from what a normal inventory would look like. But we think we are about a week perhaps two weeks away from where we will be shipping the amount of volume that we are producing each week. At that point will have to start catching up to the back log that has built in Prince George and at our two mill sites.”
CN spokesperson, Emily Hamer did not provide a timeline for the availability of cars, but says the railway is working on it “We are expecting an improvement in CN’s ability to supply both box cars and centrebeams as we recover from extreme winter conditions across much of our North American network. All of our cars are out of storage and in operation.”
Hamer says CN is in regular communication with its customers “to provide updates on fleet availability and cycle times.”
The lack of rail cars may be a blessing in disguise for the forest products industry. Natural Resource Canada’s stats show softwood lumber prices have shown some softening and Madison’s Lumber Reporter tweeted last week “WSPF lumber prices ratchet down $12 mfbm in lethargic North American solid wood market; demand stable but uninspired”.
Comments
Does anyone remember why we got rid of BC Rail. Oh yes , we don’t need a perfectly operating BC owned rail line because CN is going to take care of us .Now if we can only get rid of that pesky BC Hydro , then our water and minerals , everything will be OK , Trust Me
CN bastards doing a lowsy job again (probably focused on oil shipments and not caring about lumber, like they did to the grain shipments)
Sounds like CN is waiting for all their cars to melt out of the snowbanks back east. You know what? We get severe winter conditions every winter.
Does CP have the same problem with their cars back east? Are they all sitting loaded, waiting for the ice to go off the great lakes so the ships can be loaded or what?
They say consumer demand drives up prices so what does this make one think? Are we ready for a big price hike from CN? Where is the competition? Oh, right, we sold it.
CN is horrible, not showing up for planned switches, bringing in the wrong cars or ones already loaded etc. they over charge and under produce. Who sold us out again????
BC Rail was sold because it could not make money. It was always being subsidized by the provincial government.
If they don’t start moving the product, we are going to see mill closures.
BC Rail was setup to fail , remember all the controversy. Money to be made with the handoff to CN. Same people involved with Independent Power Producers.
Another fabricated story by the BC Libs and Pat Bell BC rail losing money. Pat also told British Columbians didn’t know how to do long wall mining and that’s why we need TFWs. Serves them right if they can’t get any rail cars. CN doesn’t care – they have no competition.
Maybe Basi and Verk have pickup trucks. No harm in asking.
BC Rail made a profit in the millions…..and the monies circulated in the community. It was Gordon Campbell’s public propoganda spin to convince BC voters it wasnt so his corporate supporters could make the bucks. They were aware that the need for transporting energy products would skyrocket. CN foreign ownership buys it and gives money for an entertainment centre which makes them look community minded….. lot cheaper to do when the money is leaving the city in corporate profits.
The situation is no better up here in Ft St John. I can’t help but think that we’ll be last on the list to get cars due to our geographical location.
BC Rail did not make money, I don’t know what your smoking, but it was a money pit to the taxpayers. It couldn’t even get enough credit to get new locomotives.
Don’t worry about it, in another 990 years we will get the tracks back.
To “He spoke”……were you the forensic auditor of BCR??? Audit reports not done by Gordo’s camp illustrate conflicting information. Also, was BCR not given loans to buy train cars as soon as Campbell got in?
BC Rail was never mandated to make a profit. Its sole purpose was to support industry in BC.
CN on the other hand is only profit driven.
The BCR did not charge its customers for many of the switching operations it performed eg. interplant switches. CN charges for everything.
This is a good dose of reality for those that natter on about; âby pipeline or by railway the oil is going to flowâ. Yeah right! To replace the delivery of 570,000 barrels per day of Tar Sands oil via a âno goâ Enbridge pipeline to Kitimat, would mean 15 additional trains pulling 130 oil tanker cars each, running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
There is no possible way, CN could handle that kind of oil volume without completely neglecting the transport of; wheat, lumber, paper, coal, and other âBritish Columbiaâ produced resources to market. Sorry, no room and time for Albertaâs dirty oil, CN is more than busy enough handling the increased volume of BC products.
I’m sure the local and provincial auto dealers have CN on their speed-dial for delivery of new cars and trucks out west here.
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