CN strikes back at forestry industry, say railways cannot be blamed for shipment delays

Rubber and Wood  |  2013-04-25 04:00:30   |   By

The Canadian National Railway has stated that they could not be blamed for the alleged wood pellet shipment delays

VANCOUVER (Scrap Monster) : The Canadian National Railway has stated that they could not be blamed for the alleged wood pellet shipment delays.

There were reports that the Canadian lumber producers were badly hit by the rail bottlenecks at a time when the US demand for lumber were at peak. The companies complained that they were unable to take fullest advantage of the favorable situation mainly because of shortage of rail cars for shipping their products. The forestry industry stated that the service providers failed to provide even the ordered rail cars. As a result, some producers are even forced to utilize other modes of transport such as trucks to ship their products.

On the other hand, CN officials say that an increased number of rail cars were allotted towards shipment of products but the operations were mainly held back by the extremely harsh winter. The CN states that it had allotted 11% more number of rail cars this year to meet the excessive demand.

Canadian National Railway Co. official states that the number of rail cars allotted is purely based on the shipment forecast by the lumber producers. The excessive US demand for lumber products was not even predicted by the forestry industry. As a result, the number of ordered cars is not sufficient to meet the shipment demands. Moreover, the terrible winter has also played its part. Meanwhile, all efforts are on to add more rail cars to the existing fleet.

CN says that the forestry industry is sending a wrong signal by blaming the railway. Several factors including the harsh weather conditions contributed to the shipment delays.