CN Grain Movement

Strong Crop Year Performance to Date

Crop Year Resumes Strong Performance

MONTREAL, Dec. 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) is pleased to announce that its movement of Canadian grain is back to pre-strike pace after recovering from the 8-day strike that occurred in November.

Despite a slow start to the crop year due to adverse weather, CN spotted over 6,800 hopper cars per week during the first two weeks of November (weeks 14 and 15 of the crop year). This was the high point of the crop year. The strike prevented CN from accepting any new orders during week 17 as CN was only operating at approximately 10% of overall capacity. By the second week of December (week 19), CN returned to shipping at peak levels, as well as taking on all customer hopper demand for the second and third weeks of December.

“After a tough harvest due to adverse weather and an 8 day labour stoppage, our railroaders have been hard at work to get movements back on track,” explained Allen Foster, vice-president of Bulk at CN. “Our disciplined approach to recovery after the strike has allowed CN to return to a normal pace, as did all the investments we have made in track infrastructure and new locomotives over the past two years. We remain committed to delivering for our grain customers and enabling Canadian and North American trade and we will continue to work closely with them as we enter the critical winter season.”

Record Performance

During the first 18 weeks of the crop year, CN set the following records:

All time record month –
October - 2.8 million metric tonnes (MMT)

All time record week -
Week 11 (October 13-19) 685,187 Metric Tonnes (MT)

About CN

CN is a true backbone of the economy, transporting more than C$250 billion worth of goods annually for a wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource products to manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail network of approximately 20,000 route miles spanning Canada and mid-America. CN – Canadian National Railway Company, along with its operating railway subsidiaries – serves the cities and ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America. For more information about CN, visit the Company’s website at www.cn.ca.

Source:

Media	Investors
Jonathan Abecassis	Paul Butcher
Senior Manager	Vice-President
Media Relations, CN	Investor Relations, CN
514-399-7956	514-399-0052