Established in 1978 and located at the head of Lake Superior, Thunder Bay Terminals provides a transportation link between rail and vessel for the movement of coal from mines in Western Canada to Ontario and other domestic and international markets.
The terminal was originally built at the time of the oil crisis in the 1970’s to ensure that there would be a reliable flow of Western Canadian coal to Ontario Hydro providing a secure all-Canadian link for Ontario Hydro’s coal requirements.
Thunder Bay Terminals’ subsequent expansion brought the addition of a dedicated dry-bulk handling facility for direct rail-to-vessel trans-shipments of most free-flowing dry bulk material including both metallurgical and thermal coal, potash, petroleum coke, liquid edible oils, urea, coarse grains and various other agricultural products.
Thunder Bay Terminals has the ability to transship coal from Western Canada and Powder River Basin (in Wyoming and Montana) onto Great Lakes vessels for transport up the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Thunder Bay Terminals has an 820-foot-long berth capable of loading vessels to full Seaway draft.
Thunder Bay Terminals employs state-of-the art technology which allows lake ships in the order of 30,000 tonnes to be routinely loaded in 6.5 hours. The site allows Thunder Bay Terminals to ensure that its customers’ product is properly segregated. Special handling procedures virtually eliminate the possibility of product contamination.
Product is delivered to the terminal by unit trains by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways.
Thunder Bay Terminals’ site consists of almost 225 acres of land and has a ground storage capacity of approximately two million tonnes.
The annual throughput capacity of the terminal is 11 million tonnes.