[Saint John] Port Development

[J81]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I would say there is a good chance. The washout they showed on TV demonstrated the CNR mainline track dangling over a gully. There may be other damage elsewhere. I would say the line will be down for the next month at least. The VIA Ocean Limited is terminating in Moncton for the time being. I imagine Halifax bound passengers will be bussed onward.

It will not be down for a month i can assure you of that. Sounds like Wednesday evening is what theyre aiming for.

[MonctonianSentinel01]

Originally Posted by J81

It will not be down for a month i can assure you of that. Sounds like Wednesday evening is what theyre aiming for.

A few days is what I've heard as well, middle of the week is probably about right.

[MonctonianSentinel01]

As of yesterday they were shooting for Friday, but it'll probably take a little bit longer.

[Ottawa]

Laying down the continuous welded rail in Mattawamkeag, Me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZxMppMkDtc

[J81]

Originally Posted by MonctonianSentinel01

As of yesterday they were shooting for Friday, but it'll probably take a little bit longer.

Opening tonight apparently.

[Ottawa]

LOT X Potential

From CPKC Investor Day meeting in Kansas City, June 28th.

Americold

Americold is building a temperature controlled facility in Kansas City to facilitate CPKC transporting fruits/veg from Mexico and beef/pork to Mexico. There are over 100 truckloads per day from KC to Mexico that they are targeting for rail transfer. And Mexico has taken top spot from California for supplying fruits and vegetables.

Americold has also been talking to DP World directly to establish similar co-located facilities at various ports worldwide. Jonathan Wahba (CPKC Senior Vice-President, Sales & Marketing – Intermodal, Automotive & Bulk) announced that DP World would likely be establishing these facilities at Vancouver and Saint John.

They weren't confirming anything at this meeting, but I feel pretty confident this is a go.

Maybe something that would fit on Lot X?

If you want to watch the video:

https://cpkcinvestorday.com/#webcast

It's about a 6 hour video. The time period to view this info is from 2:00:53 to 2:11:45.

[Ottawa]

DP World / Americold Dec. 5, 2022 Press Release

https://www.dpworld.com/news/release...-supply-chain/

[cdnguys]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

LOT X Potential

From CPKC Investor Day meeting in Kansas City, June 28th.

Americold

Americold is building a temperature controlled facility in Kansas City to facilitate CPKC transporting fruits/veg from Mexico and beef/pork to Mexico. There are over 100 truckloads per day from KC to Mexico that they are targeting for rail transfer. And Mexico has taken top spot from California for supplying fruits and vegetables.

Americold has also been talking to DP World directly to establish similar co-located facilities at various ports worldwide. Jonathan Wahba (CPKC Senior Vice-President, Sales & Marketing – Intermodal, Automotive & Bulk) announced that DP World would likely be establishing these facilities at Vancouver and Saint John.

They weren't confirming anything at this meeting, but I feel pretty confident this is a go.

Maybe something that would fit on Lot X?

If you want to watch the video:

https://cpkcinvestorday.com/#webcast

It's about a 6 hour video. The time period to view this info is from 2:00:53 to 2:11:45.

Sounds positive Any idea how many permanent jobs these facilities create ?

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Sounds positive Any idea how many permanent jobs these facilities create ?

I do a quick search and math calculation that comes out to ~65 jobs.

This company is over 100 years old. It is not fly by night. Once it is established here, it is not going to pick up and move because it will be located here for the port business. It will be an integral part of the port located on port land. A company like this increases the attractiveness of the port because it adds value to port services.

[cdnguys]

Are there any containers coming to Saint John due to the labour disruption in BC?

[J81]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Are there any containers coming to Saint John due to the labour disruption in BC?

No

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Are there any containers coming to Saint John due to the labour disruption in BC?

If anything were to come to Saint John other than what is currently scheduled it would be temporary. That business will come to us almost by itself. A few extra containers or a ship visit is not going to add good jobs at the port. That was what 2021 was. 2022 was a worldwide uptick in container traffic and pricing that we are currently correcting for.

Neither was in the long term plan because those are things that are totally unpredictable. They were also transitory.

Everybody is down this year.

Montreal - down 13% YoY (-14.7% in June alone) in intermodal traffic as of June 30
https://www.port-montreal.com/en/com.../view-document

NY/NJ - down 23.7% YoY as of June 30 (-27.4% in June alone)
https://www.panynj.gov/port/en/our-p...d-figures.html

Hapag Lloyd is enduring a significant downturn as well:
https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/content/...Q1_2023_EN.pdf
Figures of Note:
Freight rates: -28%
Transport volume : -5%
Revenue: -29.6%
Cash Flow: -42.8%
These were results from Jan. 1 to Mar. 31, 2023

Those are huge drops. Expect lower traffic volumes in this trend. Don't plan on this continuing any more than you plan based on the other two uptick events.

All those figures point to what is happening. Unfortunately, there are no monthly reports from PSJ so we have to take educated guesses as well as the occasional verbal report that can be fairly vague. It would be nice if we had somebody in the know on here (even if they were clandestine) to give us some hints or correct our assumptions as needed.

We will return to the long term trend eventually. The best plan right now is to stay the course and keep preparing for the future.

The benefits that make Saint John the best shipping choice don't change month to month or decade to decade. They are constant.

We will be ready when the shippers come knocking again. In fact, we should be knocking on their doors every day, week, etc to keep on top of what's happening. I'm sure that's what the major players are doing.

Our capacity is under utilised and we are still in construction mode. Our capacity right now is ~325K. This is a great time to be investing in further capabilities because when this trend turns will be too late to react and reap the most benefit.

[cdnguys]

I just saw some TEUs in CN’s Long Island yard. Perhaps I’m not very observant, but don’t remember seeing them before. Appeared to be CGA/CGM

[MonctonianSentinel01]

1. The main line in between Moncton and Halifax is open again since last weekend.
2. CMA/CGM is going with CN now rather than CP out of Saint John, it's now CN's contract.

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by MonctonianSentinel01

1. The main line in between Moncton and Halifax is open again since last weekend.
2. CMA/CGM is going with CN now rather than CP out of Saint John, it's now CN's contract.

CPKC is the only rail service that CMA CGM uses out of Saint John. That has been under contract since mid 2022.

Island Yard is an NBSR yard under contract since 2002 so you can't assume that anything in there is bound for CN.

If you have any questions, it is listed on CMA CGM's website who goes where:

https://www.cma-cgm.com/static/CA/at...rd,%202022.pdf

My personal experience is that I have been seeing increasing numbers of CMA CGM containers on CPKC tracks between Saint John and Montreal. Specifically, more and more temperature controlled containers, but all types are increasing.

[J81]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

CPKC is the only rail service that CMA CGM uses out of Saint John. That has been under contract since mid 2022.

Island Yard is an NBSR yard under contract since 2002 so you can't assume that anything in there is bound for CN.

Can’t or Can? CN uses Island yard and up until a few years ago had a crew and yardmasters working it so if there are CMA CGM containers sitting on railcars in Island yard they definitely came from or are heading to CN.

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by J81

Can’t or Can? CN uses Island yard and up until a few years ago had a crew and yardmasters working it so if there are CMA CGM containers sitting on railcars in Island yard they definitely came from or are heading to CN.

Great. Appreciate the information. It doesn't change anything in the big picture though.

The claim that "CMA/CGM is going with CN now rather than CP out of Saint John, it's now CN's contract." is the major mis-statement that I was addressing.

[MonctonianSentinel01]

Originally Posted by Ottawa

CPKC is the only rail service that CMA CGM uses out of Saint John. That has been under contract since mid 2022.

Island Yard is an NBSR yard under contract since 2002 so you can't assume that anything in there is bound for CN.

Was is the key word here, now they are using CN. As far as Island Yard is concerned CBNS isn't allowed to store cars in CN's Island Yard for a competitor. Absolutely not. If Island Yard was being used to stage cars for CP, a CN competitor, then NBSR would be at risk of losing the lease contract and CN could take it back if they wanted to.

Originally Posted by J81

Can’t or Can? CN uses Island yard and up until a few years ago had a crew and yardmasters working it so if there are CMA CGM containers sitting on railcars in Island yard they definitely came from or are heading to CN.

Absolutely correct.

Originally Posted by Ottawa

The claim that "CMA/CGM is going with CN now rather than CP out of Saint John, it's now CN's contract." is the major mis-statement that I was addressing.

This is the mis-statement. I'm sorry that I'm not allowed to say too much, but there should be CMA/CGM traffic for CN each week out of Saint John.

CP, CN or CSX, what difference does it make anyways? As long as Saint John gives Halifax a run for it's money and keeps growing and increasing in scope and size to actually have an Atlantic battle of the ports and comes up on top as a great benefit to our fair province, what difference does it make what road they use? They should have the right to choose their service provider and this is something that Halifax can't replicate. Multiple roads competing for traffic from one port is the difference that is going to drive Port Saint John to be more successful than Halifax.

[Ottawa]

Originally Posted by MonctonianSentinel01

Was is the key word here, now they are using CN. As far as Island Yard is concerned CBNS isn't allowed to store cars in CN's Island Yard for a competitor. Absolutely not. If Island Yard was being used to stage cars for CP, a CN competitor, then NBSR would be at risk of losing the lease contract and CN could take it back if they wanted to.



Absolutely correct.



This is the mis-statement. I'm sorry that I'm not allowed to say too much, but there should be CMA/CGM traffic for CN each week out of Saint John.

CP, CN or CSX, what difference does it make anyways? As long as Saint John gives Halifax a run for it's money and keeps growing and increasing in scope and size to actually have an Atlantic battle of the ports and comes up on top as a great benefit to our fair province, what difference does it make what road they use? They should have the right to choose their service provider and this is something that Halifax can't replicate. Multiple roads competing for traffic from one port is the difference that is going to drive Port Saint John to be more successful than Halifax.

Thanks for the clarification. In reality, there is no CPKC service east of Brownville Junction, Maine and NBSR operates as their proxy covering a small geographic area in the southwest of NB. Almost everywhere else in NB/NS/PEI is going to have to have some alternative. CPKC is basically the carrier of note from Saint John to the rest of Canada. It might be interesting to see what happens when CSX gets trains rolling.

[Ottawa]

The CPKC 120 eastbound through Maine on Aug. 6 was one of the larger trains CPKC has put on since reacquiring this route. It was a total of 215 cars. The makeup was 73 empty intermodal wells that are needed in the immediate timeframe, 45 general freight, and 169 containers in 97 intermodal wells.

As I mentioned previously, there appears to be an increase in the number of reefers and today there was a total of 48 reefers including 21 CMA/CGM reefers. All reefers are the larger 53 foot container size.