Having invested a fair hunk of change on infrastructure and rail line improvements tied in with the Fairview Container Port, Canadian National is looking forward to the arrival of container ships in Prince Rupert and the opening of the Northwest gateway to Asia.
Prince Rupert is now firmly in place on the CN map as the key operation in the transit of goods between continents, the loading dock if you will to the railroads continent wide rail network.
The Daily News from Tuesday featured an in depth article with Jim Foote, the executive vice president of sales and marketing with CN Rail who delivered the company’s enthusiasm over what Prince Rupert may bring to transportation in North America. Included in his thoughts was an announcement that CN has found a backhaul product that will make use of the thousands of containers that will arrive with each ship.
Prince Rupert is now firmly in place on the CN map as the key operation in the transit of goods between continents, the loading dock if you will to the railroads continent wide rail network.
The Daily News from Tuesday featured an in depth article with Jim Foote, the executive vice president of sales and marketing with CN Rail who delivered the company’s enthusiasm over what Prince Rupert may bring to transportation in North America. Included in his thoughts was an announcement that CN has found a backhaul product that will make use of the thousands of containers that will arrive with each ship.
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Distiller’s dried grains is a product that is used in animal feed and could find a huge market in Asia. If it proves to be popular there, the shipment of it will not only provide jobs in North America (Wisconsin and Alberta to be precise), but reduce the number of containers that are emptied in North America from each crossing.
It was but a small example of the changing economy and how Prince Rupert will soon play a major role in CN’s delivery of products to the world.
RUPERT ‘BIGGEST KEY ELEMENT’ FOR CN
Senior Manager with CN excited by company’s business opportunities
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Page one
CN Rail is optimistic it has found a new product that it can pack in containers and send back to Asia: animal feed produced from ethanol production.
Jim Foote, executive vice-president of sales and marketing with CN Rail, said the company recently announced it will stuff distiller’s dried grains (DDG’S) into the empty containers that will be moving back through the Fairview Terminal to Asia.
“We think there will be the opportunity to move DDGs, the derivative by product of making ethanol. It’s left over once they distill (the grain), it gets palletized and becomes animal feed. We think there is a huge opportunity there to move that back to Asia as well,” said Foote, during the grand opening of the Fairview Container Terminal last week.
Investing in a stuffing facility in Wisconsin would be in addition to the investments CN has made in a $4 million grain stuffing facility in Edmonton, the forest products stuffing facility currently under construction in Prince George and facilities in Chicago and Memphis were CN has expanded capacity in anticipation of trade volume from the new container terminal.
“We have invested a significant amount on it and we are willing to invest more in other areas of our network to help support this port as well,” said Foote.
“Right now, Prince Rupert is about the biggest key element we have on our network. I don’t mean that in a joking manner. It’s a key project and we are committed to it.”
He said the company is very excited about the opening of the port.
“It connects on the far west end of our network. We have a lot of traffic coming in destined for the far end our network. Our network goes directly to Toronto, Montreal or down to Chicago and Memphis,” he said.
We are looking very aggressively for opportunities where we can take the empty containers, frill them and send them back to Asia.”
Ethanol, a bio-fuel, is produced from grains such as corn by mixing dry-milled grain with water to form a mash. Enzymes are added and the mixture is heated before being allowed to ferment. The main products are ethanol, carbon dioxide and animal feed (DDG’s.)
Since the lease of B. C. Rail to CN the company has been moving more traffic along the northwestern corridor, however Foote noted it is mostly bulk traffic, with grain and coal headed to the two terminals on Ridley Island.
“It’s a very good route for us and we have been working with the grain shippers as much as we can and the volumes have gone up… also the coal volumes continue to grow and we promote the bulk terminal as much as we can.”
Other investment by CN includes upgrades to rail traffic control systems west of Prince George and siding extensions that will increase capacity from Prince Rupert through to Memphis. CN has also upgraded tunnels and bridges and acquired 2,250 intermodal platforms and 50 new locomotives specifically to support expanded services.
It was but a small example of the changing economy and how Prince Rupert will soon play a major role in CN’s delivery of products to the world.
RUPERT ‘BIGGEST KEY ELEMENT’ FOR CN
Senior Manager with CN excited by company’s business opportunities
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Page one
CN Rail is optimistic it has found a new product that it can pack in containers and send back to Asia: animal feed produced from ethanol production.
Jim Foote, executive vice-president of sales and marketing with CN Rail, said the company recently announced it will stuff distiller’s dried grains (DDG’S) into the empty containers that will be moving back through the Fairview Terminal to Asia.
“We think there will be the opportunity to move DDGs, the derivative by product of making ethanol. It’s left over once they distill (the grain), it gets palletized and becomes animal feed. We think there is a huge opportunity there to move that back to Asia as well,” said Foote, during the grand opening of the Fairview Container Terminal last week.
Investing in a stuffing facility in Wisconsin would be in addition to the investments CN has made in a $4 million grain stuffing facility in Edmonton, the forest products stuffing facility currently under construction in Prince George and facilities in Chicago and Memphis were CN has expanded capacity in anticipation of trade volume from the new container terminal.
“We have invested a significant amount on it and we are willing to invest more in other areas of our network to help support this port as well,” said Foote.
“Right now, Prince Rupert is about the biggest key element we have on our network. I don’t mean that in a joking manner. It’s a key project and we are committed to it.”
He said the company is very excited about the opening of the port.
“It connects on the far west end of our network. We have a lot of traffic coming in destined for the far end our network. Our network goes directly to Toronto, Montreal or down to Chicago and Memphis,” he said.
We are looking very aggressively for opportunities where we can take the empty containers, frill them and send them back to Asia.”
Ethanol, a bio-fuel, is produced from grains such as corn by mixing dry-milled grain with water to form a mash. Enzymes are added and the mixture is heated before being allowed to ferment. The main products are ethanol, carbon dioxide and animal feed (DDG’s.)
Since the lease of B. C. Rail to CN the company has been moving more traffic along the northwestern corridor, however Foote noted it is mostly bulk traffic, with grain and coal headed to the two terminals on Ridley Island.
“It’s a very good route for us and we have been working with the grain shippers as much as we can and the volumes have gone up… also the coal volumes continue to grow and we promote the bulk terminal as much as we can.”
Other investment by CN includes upgrades to rail traffic control systems west of Prince George and siding extensions that will increase capacity from Prince Rupert through to Memphis. CN has also upgraded tunnels and bridges and acquired 2,250 intermodal platforms and 50 new locomotives specifically to support expanded services.
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