by wintower
...by Chester Dawson and Carolyn King. Wall St. Journal, Friday August 21.
Railroad Forums
Moderator: MEC407
Zeke wrote:Irving is a true master hardballer at playing one thing off against the other to maximize profits. The MMA disaster burned them but good, so its off to the supertankers now. Seduced by cheap west African and Saudi crude it is bye bye CBR. I guess the new CMQ management was prescient when stating their business model did not include CBR. The alleged Saudi strategy to flood the crude market to screw the Russian oil economy, for fooling around with Ukraine, and financially bust out the US fracking revolution is going full blast however the Bakken is still pumping full blast, Russia is pumping full blast along with every other oil producing nation. When somebody finally blinks we may see 99 cent a gallon gasoline.Maybe Irving should have purchased the bankrupt MM&A on the cheap just as Fortress did and fixed it up to ultimately run oil trains on it without being so captive to CN, pitting the both CN and CP to get the best rate with CSX and PAR supplying a third route.
The war plagued madhouse formally known as the middle east region is teetering and banking on a steady supply of Saudi crude is a shaky bet. One coup or the Yemeni civil war pushes into Saudi oil fields proper and Irving true to form will probably restart Bakken CBR. Irving's problem is they only rely on CN at this juncture and CN charges big bucks for the service. CN does not yield on rates and like the other big boys UP,BNSF,NS,CSX and CP have a take it or leave it attitude. Captive shippers like power stations, large chemical plants and oil refineries have been chafing at the bit for many years over the Big Six's unregulated monopoly and their high freight rates. Deals like this one usually play out over a period of time and the Big Six and in this case CN sit back and know that sooner or later Irving will come crawling back and if they don't so what. There is nothing in the world that can match a major railroad when it comes to arrogance. LOL
Irving's problem is they only rely on CN at this juncture...That is incorrect. Irving moves inbound crude over CP/Port of Albany. So much for monopoly status.