Grain is playing a starring role in the St. Lawrence Seaway’s 50th anniversary season.
From the beginning of the shipping season in March to the end of July, grain has been the number one individual commodity shipped through the inland waterway system.
Grain shipments totalled 3.2 million tonnes, up 18 percent from the same period last year.
“Grain is certainly the bright spot,” said Bruce Hodgson, director of market development for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.
While grain is doing its best to make the anniversary a happy one, the global economic downturn has put a damper on the celebrations.
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So far in 2009, 12.2 million tonnes of cargo have moved through the seaway, down 37 percent from the same period the previous year. Revenue is also 37 percent lower.
Iron ore is second to grain at 2.5 million tonnes, but that’s well below last year’s 6.5 million tonnes. Coal shipments of 1.1 million tonnes are down by 35 percent, while other bulk commodities and general cargo are also down sharply.
The seaway corporation is expecting a decline in tonnage of eight to 10 percent from last year’s 40.7 million tonnes.
Despite the negative numbers, Hodgson said there are a few bright spots in the outlook for the rest of 2009.
“We’re looking forward to grain on both the Canadian and U.S. side remaining steady and being ahead of last year,” he said.
Also, iron ore traffic is expected to increase late in the shipping season as the economy begins to recover and a program designed to attract new business continues to produce positive results.
That new business includes exports of coke and coal to new destinations, exports of steel coils, a new weekly shipment of containers carrying scrap steel from Hamilton to Montreal and shipments of “project cargo,” such as wind turbines and machinery destined for the petroleum industry.
Canadian grain also ranks number one when seaway traffic is calculated on a crop year basis from Aug. 1, 2008, to July 31, 2009.
Crop year movement of grain through the system totalled 8.2 million tonnes, including 6.6 million of Canadian grain (up 20 percent from 2007-08) and 1.6 million of U.S. grain (down 56 percent from 2007-08).
Grain accounted for about 24 percent of total seaway cargo of 34.1 million tonnes during 2008-09.
