The end of winter has brought with it the beginning of another shipping season on the Great Lakes.
The first grain vessel of 2000 left Thunder Bay, Ont., on March 25, carrying a load of malt barley to Duluth, Minnesota.
Two days later, the St. Lawrence Seaway officially opened, as the Utviken, carrying 16,200 tonnes of sugar from Guatemala, sailed through the St. Lawrence Seaway locks at St. Lambert, Que., en route to Toronto.
The opening of the eastern waterway should herald improved grain shipping opportunities in the eastern Prairies, said a spokesperson for the Canadian Wheat Board. In fact, farmers may already have noticed more trains rumbling east in recent weeks.
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“The shipments to Thunder Bay have been going up over the last few weeks as we position grain for the opening,” said information officer Jim Pietryk.
For the week ending March 26, rail car unloads at the port totaled 1,650 cars, well ahead of the target of 1,100.
He said the board expects grain shipments through the seaway will be in line with the average of the last four years, a combined export and domestic movement of about 5.7 million tonnes.
With the opening of navigation, the board’s winter rail program to Eastern Canada will come to a close. The agency moved between 650,000 and 700,000 tonnes of grain from the Lakehead to eastern destinations, up from 190,000 tonnes a year ago.
St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. president Guy Veronneau said he is optimistic about the prospects for the coming year.
“Even though there are low water levels on the Great Lakes this year, this will not likely affect seaway commerce until late in the summer, if at all,” he said in a news release.
Last year, total cargo through the seaway declined by 3.2 percent to 47.8 million tonnes.
