the dock disruption has ended as union members vote on a preliminary agreement reached last week. Canadian National Railways said a 14-day strike action at western Canadian ports in a weaker-than-expected peak season will take up to eight weeks to clear a backlog of cargo.
In the past three weeks, there have been 13 days of strikes, a caucus-rejected tentative agreement, a one-day spontaneous strike, a Federal Labor Board ruling that the one-day strike was illegal, the union issued last weekend's strike notice, then withdrew it, and finally the union leadership accepted the new contract's terms.
CN CEO Tracy Robinson Tracy Robinson said, "We are pleased to see the end of the shutdown, we are working to bring these supply chains back to sync, and expect in the coming weeks to shift the majority of July's first two weeks did not change."
Strike activity in the impact of container cargo also affect the railway business, CN chief marketing officer Doug MacDonald Doug MacDonald said, although has taken steps to help alleviate the Canadian West Coast supply chain service disruptions, but domestic and international intermodal traffic environment will remain challenging.
pricing for domestic rail to transport on short-haul routes in 53-foot containers "will come under pressure" because of the increased supply of trucks, he added ". Railroads cut their outlook for intermodal traffic growth as most shippers expect the second half to be weaker than expected.
in the three months to June 30, shipments of CN international containers and 53-foot containers fell 11% year-over-year, and intermodal revenue fell 26% to C $0.983 billion (US $743,600). CN reported second-quarter net income of C $1.17 billion, down 12% from the same period in 2022, and CN does not expect a significant increase in retail inventory ahead of the winter holidays.
, MacDonald a transportation executive who has played down the likelihood of any meaningful peak season in recent weeks when confronted with questions about whether there will be a rebound in sales early next year, said he was not sure what would happen (Q1 2024) and beyond, and could only predict a normal year beyond that level, which is exactly what to go with what customers tell us, Robinson also said, the timing and health of the CN network's multimodal volume rebound depends on the North American consumer.
similar to CN, freight forwarder Kuehne Nagel played down the possibility of a traditional peak season for the marine market, with CEO Stephen Paul Stefan Paul saying that at most "there will be a slight uptick in the fourth quarter". Last week, Matson Navigation CEO Matt Cox said that based on the company's preliminary earnings report, he believes that the trans-Pacific route is "low in the peak season".
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