Carriers set low-water surcharges for Montreal

Low water in St. Lawrence River means ships can carry fewer containers.    Several container carriers have announced low-water surcharges on services from North Europe to Canada in the past week.
   • Maersk said effective July 30 it will impose a low-water surcharge amounting to $100 for 20-foot containers and $150 for 40-foot and 45-foot containers on cargo from North Europe to Montreal.
   • CMA CGM said effective Aug. 1 it will implement a $150 surcharge on both 20-foot and 40-foot containers on all cargo from North Europe to Canada East Coast on its St. Laurent service. The ships in that service call Montreal first and then Halifax before returning to Europe.
   • Hapag-Lloyd said from Aug. 1 it will also implement a low-water surcharge for all westbound cargo moving to Montreal on its St. Lawrence Container Services AT1 and AT2 of $100 per 20-foot containers and $150 per 40-foot container.
   “St. Lawrence River water levels have decreased considerably, with the latest forecasts by the Canadian Coast Guard predicting further reductions,” Hapag-Lloyd said.
    Nils Haupt, a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd, explained that “the amount of cargo we cannot load depends on the water level forecasted for Montreal for the time our vessel is scheduled to arrive there. This means we need to determine about three weeks prior to arrival Montreal how much cargo we can load.
    “We need to do this conservatively, and if in doubt rather sail light than too heavy, to avoid being unable to enter the port once we arrive. The amount of cargo we cannot load can be as high as 5,000 tons per each sailing, which equates to approximately 400 to 500 TEU lost cargo,” Haupt said.
   “Low-water levels occur from time to time on the St. Lawrence River, and it is a very common procedure for carriers to implement surcharges for those periods of low water,” he said.
   Tuesday afternoon the Port of Montreal said there was 12.11 meters of water available in the channel, which is maintained at a depth of 11.3 meters.
    But Jean Aubry-Morin, a spokesman at Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., said water levels measured at Jetty Number 1 in the Port of Montreal are below what they were last summer and have been headed downward since March and recently fell below the long-term average.
    “It’s due to ice floe, basically,” he said. While the Great Lakes have higher than normal water levels and the St. Lawrence Seaway has not been affected, he said ice “has the tendency to reduce the water level in certain areas.”
   Low water surcharges are also periodically announced by carriers on inland barge service up the Rhine River.