Canadian National Railway Co News

Singapore-headquartered port operator PSA International is all set to take over the Halterm Container Terminal in the Port of Halifax, Canada, and multipurpose Penn Terminals in Pennsylvania, USA.Both Halterm and Penn terminals are 100% owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Partner funds, a fund managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA). The price was not disclosed.Halterm terminal at the Port of Halifax is the largest container terminal in Eastern Canada. Penn Terminals located in Philadelphia, USA offers steverdoring, marine terminal and cargo entry for ports in the United States.PSA, which is owned by Temasek, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, said it is in the process of securing regulatory approvals from U.S. and Canadian authorities.

Canadian National Railway Co plans to use some additional capacity expected at the end of 2018 for its crude business, which it plans to "lock in for some time" at "very favorable pricing," the company's Chief Financial Officer said on Wednesday. "We've taken the opportunity...as capacity will come in in the second half of the year to actually lock in crude business at very favorable pricing and to lock it in for some time with some volume commitments," CN CFO Ghislain Houle said at the Wolfe Research transportation conference.

Canadian National Railway Co said about 20,000 gallons of oil was released following a freight train derailment at Plainfield, the U.S. state of Illinois on Friday, according to a filing with state pollution regulators. The cause of the derailment was unknown, a filing with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency said on Saturday. Local media reports estimated the spill to be 45,000 gallons. The incident occurred when 20 cars of a Canadian National Railway Co freight train, carrying crude for Exxon Mobil Corp to Louisiana…

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is set to be a chief beneficiary of a bid by Senate Republicans to weaken new regulations to improve train safety in the $2.8 billion crude-by-rail industry, a key cog in the development of the vast North American shale oil fields. A series of oil train accidents, including the July 2013 explosion of a train carrying crude in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people, led U.S. and Canadian regulators to announce sweeping safety rules in May. Among other things, U.S. oil trains are required to install new electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes. But in late June, the Republican-controlled Senate Commerce Committee approved a measure to drop that requirement, and order years of new research to confirm the safety benefits of ECP brakes.

The appointment of Tim Marsh as senior vice president sales and marketing by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd is aimed at bolstering its battered intermodal business, says a report from Globe and Mail. Marsh, who brings 25 years of international shipping industry sales and marketing experience, most recently served as executive VP North America Trade Division for Cosco Container Lines (COCSO), the global shipping giant. CP has lost some big intermodal customers to Canadian National Railway Co., and appears to be taking a big step toward winning new contracts in the business of handling containers that travel by ship, rail and truck. Marsh will lead a sales team that has recently lost the intermodal business of APL Ltd., Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd.

Canada needs to invest in shipping more grains and oilseeds off the West Coast as harvests get larger, to avoid the massive transportation backlogs that followed last year's record crops, industry officials said on Wednesday. Last year, 19.3 million metric tons of grain moved in bulk and containers combined through Port Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, the country's biggest port, which connects Canadian commodities with Asian buyers, according to the port. But handling Canadian…

Three Canadian grain handlers said this week that they will expand facilities to handle the country's crops, after a record-smashing harvest overwhelmed the transportation system. Viterra, owned by Glencore Xstrata PLC, said on Thursday it will spend C$100 million ($92 million) to boost grain shipping through Port Metro Vancouver, while CWB, formerly known as the Canadian Wheat Board, said it is building a second Western Canadian grain elevator. Global commodities trader Cargill Ltd said on Wednesday that it would expand an elevator site in Manitoba. The moves come as the country's grain handlers and railways have struggled to move a record harvest to port, causing a massive backlog.

Officials from the northern Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba, are lobbying insurance giant Lloyd's of London to reduce the rates and extend the season for the Hudson Bay shipping terminal, Reuters reported. "There's a clear business case for this," Steve Ashton, Manitoba's government services minister told Reuters on Wednesday. "We felt that giving the current weather patterns and also the technology that's out there, and the general ability to get ships in, that there was a clear argument for the enhancement of the shipping season, said Ashton. Ashton is part of a Canadian delegation in Europe that is meeting with Lloyd's officials, international shipping companies and specialty crop merchants to boost Churchill's profile and long-term viability.

Officials from the northern Canadian port of Churchill, Manitoba, last month lobbied insurance giant Lloyd's of London to reduce the rates and extend the season for the Hudson Bay shipping terminal. "There's a clear business case for this," Steve Ashton, Manitoba's government services minister said. "We felt that giving the current weather patterns and also the technology that's out there, and the general ability to get ships in, that there was a clear argument for the enhancement of the shipping season, said Ashton. Ashton is part of a Canadian delegation in Europe that is meeting with Lloyd's officials, international shipping companies and specialty crop merchants to boost Churchill's profile and long-term viability.