Port of Thunder Bay YTD grain shipments up 23%

The Thunder Bay Port Authority announced the port’s August grain shipments were 5 percent higher than its five-year monthly average thanks to strong harvests on the Canadian prairies throughout 2013 and 2014.    The Port of Thunder Bay, located along Lake Superior in Ontario, Canada, handled 650,000 metric tons of grain shipments in August, 5 percent more than its five-year average for the month.
   The port’s year-to-date grain shipments remain 23 percent above its five-year average.
   Grain volumes through the port have been higher than average for the past year and a half thanks to strong harvests on the Canadian prairies throughout 2013 and 2014.
   “The normalization of shipments at the Port this August indicates that the carry-over from these harvests has mostly worked its way through the system. Harvesting of the current crop has begun, and predictions peg the 2015 harvest as average in size,” the Thunder Bay Port Authority said in a statement.
   The port includes eight operational grain terminals with a total storage capacity of 1.2 million tons, the largest in North America, according to the port’s website.