Cargo vessels calling ports along the Great Lakes-Seaway system are scrambling to finish their pick-ups and deliveries before the St. Lawrence Seaway, which connects the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, closes Dec. 30 for the winter.
Cargo vessels calling ports along the Great Lakes-Seaway system are scrambling to finish their pick-ups and deliveries before the St. Lawrence Seaway, which connects the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, closes Dec. 30 for the winter.
“With just under a month remaining in the 2015 navigation season, we anticipate vessel activity in the Seaway System to be robust right up to closing,” said Betty Sutton, administrator of the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.
“The 2015 shipping season has been a bellwether for North American economic trends,” said Stephen Brooks, president of the Chamber of Marine Commerce, in a statement. “Ships are delivering cement, stone, gypsum, aluminum and machinery to support an eight-year high in U.S. construction spending, along with growth in the automotive sector in Great Lakes states.”
He noted, however, “steep declines in global consumption and pricing have largely halted coal and iron ore exports via the waterway this season and that continues.”
From April 2 to Nov. 30, the seaway saw 1.7 million metric tons of cargo coming from new origins or heading to new destinations. This included salt imports from Morocco, Egypt and Venezuela to the ports of Toledo, Milwaukee and Monroe, the chamber said.
Domestic general cargo via the Seaway saw an increase of 27.7 percent this season, due mainly to increased shipments of aluminum ingots moving from Sept-Iles, Quebec to ports in Oswego, N.Y., and Toledo, Ohio for the automotive industry and other uses.
Movements of large-scale machinery and other project cargo, such as wind turbine components, almost doubled this shipping season, up 92 percent.
“The Port of Milwaukee has really proven its value to our regional manufacturers with an increase in large-scale movements of machinery for both export and import,” said Milwaukee’s Port Director Paul Vornholt said.
“We have had another strong year for steel moving through the port, which is used by local manufacturers. And a number of vessels arrived through the Seaway bringing in barley to support our city’s brewers. With a few weeks left of the Seaway season, we anticipate a strong finish for our overall cargo numbers as ships bring in more steel,” Vornholt said.
“We saw increased exports of grain and other bulk products moving to Quebec in recent shipments,” said Rick Heimann, port director for the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor. “Quebec is a key trading partner for us because that region serves as a gateway to the Great Lakes in a similar way that our port serves as a gateway to the U.S. Midwest and the extensive inland waterway system. Grain from Midwestern farms can be shipped on Great Lakes vessels from our port to Quebec and loaded onto larger ocean vessels for transatlantic shipments. Developing these types of regional partnerships is vital to realizing the full potential of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.”
Year-to-date seaway shipments of construction materials such as cement and stone were up 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
“So far this season, the Port of Green Bay has moved about 1.6 million metric tons of cargo, a little shy of our goal of 2 million. Recent imports have included cement, coal, limestone and salt. As for exports, petroleum products have seen an increase due to shortages being experienced on the East Coast. With much of the region, including Wisconsin, experiencing moderate temperatures for this time of year, the port will most likely be able to move cargo through the end of December,” said Dean Haen, director for the Brown County Port and Resource Recovery department.
Across the board, total year-to-date (April 2 to Nov. 30) cargo on the seaway was 31.5 million metric tons, down 10.4 percent from the same 2014 period.
Final cargo push on St. Lawrence Seaway before winter closure
