Port sees 96 per cent jump in grain shipments
Majority of 1.8 million metric tons handled through port exported
The Port of Hamilton has witnessed a 96 per cent increase in grain shipments this year compared to the same period in 2017.
The vast majority of the more than 1.8 million metric tons handled through the port so far in 2018 has been exported.
While grain volumes depend on the crop year and price and demand in the market, this year’s “big growth” is also affected by a number of other factors, said Hamilton Port Authority president and CEO Ian Hamilton.
Some of those include:
• The port authority’s capacity to handle the increase through more than $200-million in agrifood sector investment over recent years, including the G3 Canada Ltd. grain export terminal as well as the Parrish and Heimbecker flour mill — both in their second year of operation.
• Increasing trade as a result of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European
Union
• A drought in Europe resulting in a poor domestic corn crop, leading European livestock producers to look to North American markets to import more corn for feed.
• European counter-tariffs on agricultural products — a response to American tariffs on
steel and aluminum — that have resulted in European markets sourcing more outside the U.S.
The results are noteworthy because, over the past several years, the port authority has been trying to diversify beyond products related to steelmaking.
“It indicates that our tenants and the Hamilton Port Authority
were wise to make the increase in the agricultural industry,” Hamilton said.
Agricultural commodities like grain, fertilizer and sugar now make up 26.6 per cent of the port’s total cargo, up from 9 per cent a decade ago. Shipments of agricultural products were up by 109 per cent from January to September 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.
At the Parrish and Heimbecker flour mill, local wheat and some from western Canada is blended into bakery flour that is used in commercial food processing operations all within 100 kilometres of the Hamilton facility.
Almost all of the corn, wheat and soybeans handled at the Port of Hamilton are grown on Ontario farms. The grain arrives at port terminals mostly by truck, but also by railcar. Grain is sampled from inside the truck using a hydraulic probe. It is transported through a vacuum tube to an on-site testing facility.
The grain is then delivered to port tenants where it is analyzed for a number of quality specifications, according to Canadian Grain Commission standards. If the grain meets the standards, the truck unloads it into an inground collection pit where conveyors move the grain to silos for storage, into a seed-crushing facility to be processed or onto a vessel.
Hamilton said he expects to see “continually strong” volumes for the remainder of 2018 because of soybean season.