Teck CEO unloads on shipper with gripes about costs and cargo
TORONTO – A rift between between Teck Resources and the company it uses to export its coal widened as the Vancouver-based miner publicly accused the shipper of charging too much and contaminating some freight.
The head of Teck, already shifting some steel-making coal freight away from Westshore Terminals Investment , said on Wednesday that the export facility had contaminated “dozens” of shipments. Teck was forced to build its own terminal quickly, before a permit lapsed and its contract with Westshore expired, which drove up capital costs, according to CEO Don Lindsay.
“We had a lot of trouble with Westshore,” Lindsay told analysts at an industry conference in Banff, Alberta. “We’re not happy that the capex doubled. We had to get away from a company that used monopolistic pricing practices.”
Westshore, also based in Vancouver and operated by billionaire Jim Pattison, is the largest coal-loading facility on the west coast of the Americas. The company refuted Teck’s allegations.
Because Westshore had a ten-year contract with Teck, employees were able to ship the company’s coal “when they liked,” which often was not when prices were high, Lindsay said. That practice cost Teck $200-million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization during one quarter in 2018, when a million tons of sales were lost at a time coal margins exceeded $200/t, he said.
“We certainly disagree with the first two comments about not adhering to the contract and having tons of trouble with Westshore,” Nick Desmarais, Westshore’s corporate secretary, said by phone, referring to Teck’s allegations including the contamination of its coal. “And our rates are market rates.”
“They were contaminating our coal with thermal coal,” Lindsay alleged. “We had dozens and dozens and dozens of incidents, including one incident where it was so severe that our largest customer stopped sending ships to them.”
Comments
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Showroom
Weir is a global leader in mining technology. We recognise that our planet’s future depends on the transition to renewable energy, and that...
VISIT SHOWROOM
FlameBlock is a proudly South African company that engineers, manufactures and supplies fire intumescent and retardant products to the fire...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
