St. Lawrence Seaway’s volumes slip 11%

Year-to-date volumes on the St. Lawrence Seaway have been hindered by the lack of iron ore and coal, but international traffic continues to be well above the five-year average, Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation Administrator Betty Sutton said.    The St. Lawrence Seaway’s year-to-date cargo volumes fell 11 percent from the corresponding period in 2015 to 13.2 million metric tons, according to the Great Lakes Seaway Partnership.
   “The lack of iron ore and coal has definitely been a contributing factor for this decrease; however international traffic continues to be well above the five-year average, keeping our ports and their workforce busy,” Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation Administrator Betty Sutton said.
   However, the Port of Cleveland, located along Lake Erie, has continued to see steady volumes of imported steel from Europe and has consistently been bringing on new customers via the Cleveland-Europe Express, especially in the container segment, Port of Cleveland Vice President, Maritime and Logistics David S. Gutheil said.
   The Cleveland-Europe Express launched in 2014, and according to the port’s website, it is the only direct, scheduled vessel service that transports containerized and non-containerized cargo between the Great Lakes and Europe, calling the Port of Antwerp.
   The port’s vessel partner, the Spliethoff Group, has immediate connections from the Belgian port to Russia, Finland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Baltic states.
   Gutheil also added, “We are also seeing increased interest in the project cargo market, through additional inquiries from customers seeking to move their cargo via the St. Lawrence Seaway and avoid congestion at coastal ports.”
   Just last month, the Port of Cleveland completed the construction of a 21,000-square-foot warehouse for trans-load opportunities, bringing the port’s total storage capacity to 320,000 square feet, Gutheil said.