St. Lawrence Seaway closed for winter, reopens in late March

St. Lawrence Seaway closed for winter, reopens in late March    The St. Lawrence Seaway’s annual maintenance program for its 13 locks and connecting channels is underway, with $5 million for the Montreal/Lake Ontario section and $20 million for the Welland Canal.
   The seaway’s management officially closed its shipping season Dec. 30. The seaway opened its 46th shipping season March 25, and remained operational for 281 days last year. The Welland Canal section closed Dec. 31.
   Tonnage for the seaway was up by 5.3 percent in 2004, which its management attributes to “strength of the steel industry at home and the need for imported steel from abroad.”
   Earlier this year, labor disputes in the iron ore industry and supply problems in the coal sector created low inventory levels, and a half-million ton shortfall in shipments on the seaway through the summer. Once these disputes were settled, the seaway stayed opened longer to make up the losses.
   Other commodities, such as grain, coke, steel and scrap metals, made modest gains in 2004. Overall volumes are estimated to have increased 5.5 percent over 2003 in the Montreal/Lake Ontario section (totaling 30.49 million tons) and 6.5 percent in the Welland Canal Section (totaling 33.94 million tons).
   The seaway management plans to step up its marketing to shippers in 2005.
   “We have recaptured the movement of aluminum ingots from Sept-Iles to Toledo from rail; we have seen some Ontario grain moved by barge, as opposed to truck, from Prescott to Sorel; and we have determined the conditions necessary for attracting container movements in the system,” said Richard Corfe, president of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.
   “We also expect to benefit indirectly from the booming China trade, which is now saturating West Coast ports,” he said. “The East Coast is getting some of the overflow business, and we will be working to get a fair proportion of that through the seaway next year.”