CN to sell assets of IC RailMarine Terminal

NEW ORLEANS: CN has announced it is selling all of the assets of IC RailMarine Terminal Company (ICRMT) to Raven Energy, an affiliate of Foresight Energy and the Cline Group. The deal is worth US$73 million.

ICRMT is an indirect subsidiary of CN on the east bank of the Mississippi River at Convent, Louisiana, west of New Orleans. The terminal stores and transfers bulk commodities and liquids between rail, ship and barge, serving customers in North American and global markets.

CN said it expects the transaction to close in about 45 days, following receipt of regulatory approvals. After closing, CN said it will begin a 10-year rail transportation agreement with Savatran LLC, another affiliate of Foresight and Cline, to haul coal from four Illinois mines to the Convent transfer facility. Under the agreement, Savatran will ship a minimum annual volume of coal via CN.

“We’re pleased to have concluded an agreement for the sale of ICRMT assets, with plans to enter into a long-term transportation agreement for CN coal shipments to the terminal,” said Luc Jobin, CN’s executive vice-president and CFO. “These initiatives will allow CN to make better use of its southern rail corridor while expanding its participation in the growing export of Illinois Basin coal.”

Foresight will expand the capacity of the facility to eight million tons of export coal per year, from a current capacity of about four million tons, with the potential for an additional eight-million-ton expansion.