Cargill Ltd News

Longshore workers at Canada's biggest port, the Port of Vancouver, were locked out on Thursday in a labor dispute over technology changes, temporarily grinding most shipping there to a halt. The lockout ended in a deal on Thursday with their employer after a few hours, the workers' union said.A tentative agreement on a new contract was reached with the BC Maritime Employers Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada said in a statement. Jim Thompson, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada…

The North American spat pitting Canada and Mexico against the United States over meat labels has sown confusion among producers and shippers in all three countries, with a trade war potentially just weeks away. The World Trade Organization on Monday authorized Canada and Mexico, the biggest markets for exported U.S. goods, to retaliate against the United States' meat-labeling rules, setting the annual level at C$1.055 billion for Canada and $228 million for Mexico. The United States took a step towards defusing the row on Wednesday when the U.S. Congress approved a spending bill that includes the repeal of federal laws mandating meatpackers identify where animals are raised and slaughtered.

Canadian grain marketer CWB said on Thursday it will build a third grain elevator on the western Prairies, as the former Wheat Board pieces together a crop-handling network. Winnipeg-based CWB will build an elevator that can store 42,000 tonnes of grain near Pasqua, Saskatchewan. It expects the elevator, adjacent to a Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd line with the ability to load 134 rail cars, to open in January 2016. The elevator is the latest project to expand Western Canada's grain-handling capacity, including country elevators and port terminals, as Canadian farmers increase production. Richardson International Ltd, Cargill Ltd and Viterra have also announced building projects. Viterra said last week that it would build a grain terminal at Ste.

Canadian grain marketer CWB said on Monday it has agreed to buy Great Sandhills Terminal Ltd, a farmer-owned 20,000-tonne grain handling facility in Leader, Saskatchewan, for $16.3 million. The deal, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, is expected to close by Sept. 1. It also includes a majority stake in a short-line railway in Saskatchewan. CWB did not release further financial details. CWB, which was previously known as the Canadian Wheat Board, has made several deals to piece together a grain-handling network in the past year as it moves toward operating outside of government control. Ottawa stripped the board of its western wheat and barley marketing monopoly in 2012 and agreed to guarantee CWB's borrowings until it is sold or develops a plan to be self-sustaining by 2016.

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.