The Canadian Wheat Board is concerned about tight supplies of railcars to ship its grain to export ports, its chief executive Adrian Measner said on Thursday.

Canadian Pacific Railway has been slow in delivering hopper cars, Measner told reporters on the sidelines of a House of Commons hearing. "We are concerned about overall car supply on the CP (Rail) side," Measner said. "It is really important we get the response we need right now."

The CWB has shipped 55 percent of its target of 16 million tonnes of exports of wheat and barley so far in the current 2003-04 (August to July) marketing year, Measner said. The agency wants to ship 85 percent by May, a CWB spokeswoman said. The CWB has incurred demurrage penalties on "six or seven" ships since Jan. 1 because it has not been able to get grain from the land-locked Prairies to ocean ports on time, Measner said.

"We did have vessels go on demurrage during the winter period and we may have one or two more that may go on demurrage, just given the slow-up here," Measner said.

The problems date back from extreme cold and blizzards that caused backlogs and prompted CP Rail to declare force majeure on some contracts, CWB spokeswoman Louise Waldman said. "There certainly have been some lingering problems," Waldman said, noting the CWB has an accumulated shortfall of 1,450 railcars from CP Rail.

This week, the CWB requested 400 railcars for movement to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and East Coast ports, but received only 203. The agency asked for 800 cars for next week, but will receive only 326, Waldman said. "We have raised our concerns ... to CP and we are expecting them to sort these problems out," she said.

A strike at Canadian National Railway Co. has not caused problems with bulk grain shipments, Measner said. "At this point in time, it hasn't had a major impact," he said. "We are monitoring the situation closely.