Weekly Performance Update – To Grain Week 33 (CY 2014)
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Summary
CN and CP supplied 4,062 (52%) of the 7,801 hopper cars ordered for delivery in Grain Week 33. They supplied a further 4,133 cars that fulfilled customer orders from previous weeks. When railway car orders are not supplied to shippers in the week they are ordered, some shipper grain sales will be lost and some will be deferred. Lost sales cannot be recovered as international buyers will obtain this grain from suppliers outside Canada. Deferred sales may be filled by the grain company in later weeks using cars supplied later on in the year by the railway however they can result in extra costs to the supply chain through higher inventory carrying costs, payment of contract penalties by shippers, payment of ocean demurrage for waiting vessels and loss of goodwill with overseas customers.
The accumulation of each week’s unfulfilled demand for hopper cars remains over 23,000 cars for the current grain year and represents the total volume of missed and deferred shipper orders. The net unfulfilled demand – those orders that shippers continue to expect the railways to supply excluding orders associated with rejected cars, denied orders and railway cancellations – is now 9,081 orders.
Railway Car Supply – Grain Week 33
 CN spotted 4,052 hopper cars and CP spotted 4,143 hopper cars in the country in Grain Week 33 for a total supply of 8,195 cars – this included 4,133 cars that had been ordered for prior weeks. Grain Week 33 car spotting performance for both CN was slightly 11% than its YTD weekly average of 3,600 cars whereas CP was 18% higher than its weekly average of 3,500 cars per week.
o In Grain Week 33 CN and CP supplied 4,062 (52%) of the 7,801 hopper cars ordered for delivery in Grain Week 33 representing a shortfall of 3,739 cars for Grain Week 33 orders.
o Timeliness of supply in response to customer orders has been consistently poor throughout the course of the crop year for both railways. To date, the railways have supplied 44% of customer orders in the week for which cars were ordered with CN (57%) performing nearly twice as well as CP (31%).
o Grain Week 33 saw CN (63%) and CP (41%) continue their recent improved performance for spotting of empty cars in the week for which they were ordered.
ï‚· Through the first 33 weeks of the current crop year, railways have failed to supply 23,182 hopper cars ordered by shippers. This represents a shortfall equivalent to 9% of shipper demand.
o more than 3,700 customer orders – approximately 41% of unfulfilled orders - have been outstanding for 4 weeks or longer 1
ï‚· Boxcar shippers received 67% of cars ordered for Grain Week 33. This is an improvement over recent weeks and consistent with the overall level of order fulfillment received this grain year.
Corridor Performance
ï‚· In Grain Week 33 traffic destined to bulk terminals in Western Canada received only a slightly higher percentage (53%) of cars than other corridors. By comparison, non-bulk corridors including the USA/Mexico, Vancouver transload and Canadian domestic corridors received 49% of cars ordered for delivery in Grain Week 33.
ï‚· While CN fulfilled 81% of orders in non-bulk corridors, CP supplied 9% of cars for current week orders in Week 33 in non-bulk corridors.
1 Based on net unfulfilled demand – excluding rejections, cancellations and denied orders – of 9,081
1 |
Summary
CN and CP supplied 4,062 (52%) of the 7,801 hopper cars ordered for delivery in Grain Week 33. They supplied a further 4,133 cars that fulfilled customer orders from previous weeks. When railway car orders are not supplied to shippers in the week they are ordered, some shipper grain sales will be lost and some will be deferred. Lost sales cannot be recovered as international buyers will obtain this grain from suppliers outside Canada. Deferred sales may be filled by the grain company in later weeks using cars supplied later on in the year by the railway however they can result in extra costs to the supply chain through higher inventory carrying costs, payment of contract penalties by shippers, payment of ocean demurrage for waiting vessels and loss of goodwill with overseas customers.
The accumulation of each week’s unfulfilled demand for hopper cars remains over 23,000 cars for the current grain year and represents the total volume of missed and deferred shipper orders. The net unfulfilled demand – those orders that shippers continue to expect the railways to supply excluding orders associated with rejected cars, denied orders and railway cancellations – is now 9,081 orders.
Railway Car Supply – Grain Week 33
 CN spotted 4,052 hopper cars and CP spotted 4,143 hopper cars in the country in Grain Week 33 for a total supply of 8,195 cars – this included 4,133 cars that had been ordered for prior weeks. Grain Week 33 car spotting performance for both CN was slightly 11% than its YTD weekly average of 3,600 cars whereas CP was 18% higher than its weekly average of 3,500 cars per week.
o In Grain Week 33 CN and CP supplied 4,062 (52%) of the 7,801 hopper cars ordered for delivery in Grain Week 33 representing a shortfall of 3,739 cars for Grain Week 33 orders.
o Timeliness of supply in response to customer orders has been consistently poor throughout the course of the crop year for both railways. To date, the railways have supplied 44% of customer orders in the week for which cars were ordered with CN (57%) performing nearly twice as well as CP (31%).
o Grain Week 33 saw CN (63%) and CP (41%) continue their recent improved performance for spotting of empty cars in the week for which they were ordered.
ï‚· Through the first 33 weeks of the current crop year, railways have failed to supply 23,182 hopper cars ordered by shippers. This represents a shortfall equivalent to 9% of shipper demand.
o more than 3,700 customer orders – approximately 41% of unfulfilled orders - have been outstanding for 4 weeks or longer 1
ï‚· Boxcar shippers received 67% of cars ordered for Grain Week 33. This is an improvement over recent weeks and consistent with the overall level of order fulfillment received this grain year.
Corridor Performance
ï‚· In Grain Week 33 traffic destined to bulk terminals in Western Canada received only a slightly higher percentage (53%) of cars than other corridors. By comparison, non-bulk corridors including the USA/Mexico, Vancouver transload and Canadian domestic corridors received 49% of cars ordered for delivery in Grain Week 33.
ï‚· While CN fulfilled 81% of orders in non-bulk corridors, CP supplied 9% of cars for current week orders in Week 33 in non-bulk corridors.
1 Based on net unfulfilled demand – excluding rejections, cancellations and denied orders – of 9,081
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