St. Lawrence Seaway System Reports Gains in Traditional Cargoes in May

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership reports overall gains for the St. Lawrence Seaway in traditional cargoes through the month of May, with shipments of coal, grain, liquid bulk and general cargoes totaling 4.67 million metric tons (mt) – keeping Seaway traffic above the five-year average.

Year-to-date total cargo shipments for the period from March 29, 2018 through May 31, 2018 were 7.866 million metric tons, a decrease of 3.71 percent compared to 2017 figures. Iron ore shipments were down 24.8 percent. While the dry bulk category decreased 18.5 percent, shipments of pig iron went up 324.4 percent, stone increased 161.8 percent and ores & concentrates cargoes were up 97.3 percent. The Seaway's 2018 shipping season began almost a week later than the 2017 shipping season.

Top performing cargoes through May 2018 include:

• Coal – 649,000 mt; a 43.4 percent increase
• Grain – 2,204,000 mt; an 8.58 percent increase
• Liquid Bulk – 1,096,000 mt; a 19.4 percent increase
• Pig Iron – 61,000 mt; a 324.4 percent increase
• Steel Slabs – 205,000 mt; a 100.6 percent increase

The U.S. ports of Milwaukee (Wis.), Oswego (N.Y.) and Toledo (Ohio) showed strong activity thus far this year.

"May has been a month of steady traffic with steel arriving at a pace comparable to recent strong years," says Jeff Fleming, spokesperson for Port Milwaukee. "Some of the same ships bringing steel have made the short hop to the silos in Port Milwaukee's inner harbor where they have loaded locally grown grain for export."

A similar demand is opening up a new maritime market for U.S. grain that has not existed at the Port of Oswego for over 40 years, says William Scriber, Acting Executive Director of the Port of Oswego Authority. "We are finishing a joint project with Purdue Agribusiness to start tripling our grain exports to 60,000 metric tons for 2018 and increasing to 75,000-80,000 metric tons in 2019," says Scriber.

Nearly 2.5 million tons of cargo have passed through the Port of Toledo in the 2018 shipping season. Coal and grain are outpacing 2017 year-to-date results while other commodities are not far behind. "We have seen a lot of international grain movement this year," says Joe Cappel, Vice President of Business Development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.

Learn More: www.greatlakesseaway.org

Contact: 
Eric Kogelschatz 
216-609-3740 
[email protected]

SOURCE The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership

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