Ships are navigating the St. Lawrence Seaway once again, but Canadian grain shipping companies aren’t popping any champagne corks.
Grain volumes are expected to drop this year and vessel operators like N. M. Paterson and Son are bracing for rough waters.
“It’s way down to the point where even with our small fleet, we’re only running half the ships we ran last year,” said Robert Paterson, chief executive officer of the company’s marine division.
The company owns seven lakers. Last year it put four in the water. This year it was planning to run four again until it got the latest sales forecasts from the Canadian Wheat Board last month.
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“We just pulled the plug on two of them right away, bang, and put the two out that we’ve got business for,” Paterson said last week, adding that other shipping companies are cutting back in a similar fashion.
Not only is the CWB’s shipping program down from last year, but so are forecasts for non-board grains, domestic movement and export shipments to the United States.
Well below last year
Grain shipments out of Thunder Bay, Ont., last year totaled 10.2 million tonnes, including about eight million tonnes of wheat board grain. That was the best year since 1994 and the fourth best in the past decade. But that performance isn’t about to be repeated in 1998.
“This year we’re looking at moving closer to five to 5.5 million tonnes of CWB grains,” said wheat board information officer Tracey Bryksa. “While it looks like a drop because we did eight million last year, we’re keeping on a par with what we’ve done in the past.”
Paul Kennedy, of the Thunder Bay Harbor Commission, said people at the port will be watching the progress of this year’s grain crop just as intently as prairie farmers.
“The byword here is going to be hope for a good growing season and hope for a good harvest so we can have a busy fall,” he said.
Paterson said he’s concerned about the long-term impact if grain volumes remain at current levels.
“If we just continue to limp along, how do we replace plant and equipment?” he said. “We’re not going flat out, we’re not full utilizing, we’re not getting the full return. Where do we go with the fleet, where is it going and how do we sustain this important waterway for the western producer?”
He said the future of the eastern grain export system is critical for the industry and must be a key component of the transportation review being carried out by Justice Willard Estey.
It’s especially frustrating for seaway shippers to see their business dropping while the federal government pours taxpayers’ money into the port of Churchill and allows for subsidized rail service to the northern port.
The 300,000 to 500,000 tonnes that might move through Churchill would help keep the St. Lawrence system viable, said Paterson.
The first grain ship of the season left Thunder Bay March 26. The M.V. Windoc, a Paterson vessel, picked up 25,000 tonnes of durum from the Cargill Ltd. terminal and headed down the seaway to unload at the transfer elevator at Port Cartier in the lower St. Lawrence.
St. Lawrence Seaway Authority acting president Michel Fournier said in a press release the agency is expecting a strong shipping season.
“Our 1997 season was highly successful and we remain optimistic for 1998 as strong cargo movements are anticipated throughout the year,” he said.
