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Single-load grain, coal shipments broken at Port Authority

A pair of longstanding records have fallen this year at the Thunder Bay Port Authority. Twice in April ships set new single-load coal highs.
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Port Authority president and CEO Tim Heaney says the city shipping season is off to a great start in 2015. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

A pair of longstanding records have fallen this year at the Thunder Bay Port Authority.

Twice in April ships set new single-load coal highs. On April 12  CSL Laurentian took on 31,384 metric tonnes of coal, beating by 36 metric tonnes set by CSL Assiniboine in 2006. The record stood all of two weeks, when CSL Assiniboine took it back, loading 32,366 metric tonnes of coal.

The grain record also fell.

On May 1 CSL Welland loaded 31,019 metric tonnes of wheat, besting the previous record of 30,400 metric tonnes carried by CSL Assiniboine in 2009.

Port Authority president and CEO Tim Heaney said bigger ships should see those records continue to fall. It’s also helped the organization off to another strong start.

“It’s been a strong year so far. We’re running a little ahead of last year, which was the best year in many years,” Heaney said.
“So that’s staying with us. And we’re seeing a lot more variety of projects and general cargo as well this year in the port.”

Wood pallets and mining equipment are just two examples of varied cargo that’s either been processed at the port or are expected to be in the coming months and years.

“It’s been one of our main objectives to diversify cargo in the port. It takes a while to build some of this business, but this year seems to be a bit of a turnaround for us,” Heaney said.

He added he thinks the larger grain totals could be here to stay, saying the port is benefitting with the loss last year of the Canadian Wheat Board.

“There’s been a chain reaction of events that actually benefit Thunder Bay. I think you’re going to see those higher numbers in the future as well,” Heaney said.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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