A rift between between Teck Resources Ltd. 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 Corp., 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 Chief Executive Officer 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.
For the rest of this article: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/teck-ceo-unloads-on-shipper-with-gripes-about-costs-and-cargo-1.1382169