RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Race?"Eventually QNSL and Arcelor railway will form a loop and join both lines"
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This forming of a loop was a suggestion by Stantec, a rail consulting firm, in a report to the Newfoundland and Labrador government. There's no suggestion that either Arcelor or IOC, owners of the respective railroads, have any interest in joining their lines. Even Stantec admits that binding federal legislation would be required to force this plan into existence.
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QSNL currently has around 40 MT of traffic (IOC 23 MT, Bloom Lake 8 MT, Wabush 4 MT, LIM 4 MT). NML's DSO project will take 3 MT next year, Alderon's registered for 16 MT, Cliffs at Bloom Lake wants another 16 MT, IOC is looking to double their current production of 23 MT. That adds up to around 100 MT (and the QNS&L's max capacity may be less than 100 MT).
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CHM can't beat out NML, which comes online next year.
CHM can't beat out ADV, which has registered its project for environmental permitting, at least a year's head start on CHM, which won't start that process until Q3, 2012.
CHM will have to beat out two majors, Cliffs, which owns the Bloom Lake railway that CHM wants access to, and IOC, which owns the main railway everyone wants access to.