Fourth Consecutive Record Month Leads to Best Ever Quarter, Record First Half of the Year, and Record Pace for Carload and Intermodal Shipments

MONTREAL, July 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) announced today that it has achieved another monthly record in June moving 2.7 million metric tonnes (MMT) of Canadian grain. In the first half of 2020 through June 30, CN moved 15 MMT. This also represents a new all-time best quarter for CN with 8.15 MMT moved.

June is also CN’s fourth consecutive month of record grain movement, contributing to CN’s record pace crop-year-to-date through June of 26.9 MMT versus the previous record of 26.5 MMT set last crop year. In addition, CN has moved over 1 MMT of Canadian grain from the Prairies crop year to-date via container, contributing to CN’s record pace of Canadian grain intermodal shipments.

Records

• Best first half of the year, with 15.0 MMT moved compared to the previous record of 13.9 MMT
• Record crop-year-to-date pace through June of 26.9 MMT compared to the previous record of 26.5 MMT
• Best quarter ever with 8.15 MMT moved compared to the previous record of 8.08 MMT and compared to 7.4 MMT during the second quarter of 2019.
• Best June with 2.7 MMT moved compared to the previous record of 2.44 MMT

Quotes
"From Canadian farmers to port terminals, these achievements are a testament to the strength of our supply chain and its ability to meet the continued strong global demand for grain. Strong demand for grain through the second quarter, coupled with strong execution by CN’s dedicated team of railroaders, allowed us to achieve our record quarterly results and for the first half of 2020. Those results come after challenges earlier in the crop year. CN’s fourth consecutive record month of grain movement and record total tonnage crop-year-to-date demonstrates the continued positive impacts of CN’s capital investments on increased network capacity and resiliency.”
- James Cairns, Senior Vice-President Rail Centric Supply Chain, CN

“CN is proud to play an important role in providing an essential service for the agri-food supply chain, and in the face of our current global market environment, CN’s team has enabled us to have such an exceptional season. Despite all the difficulties we faced earlier this year, we are confident that the high volume of shipments experienced in June will continue until the end of the crop year and that CN and our partners of the supply chain will continue to deliver for the grain industry.”
- Allen Foster, Vice-President, Bulk, 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, 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.