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Duluth-Superior: 2013 Shipping Season Gets Underway

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U.S.-flag lakers began moving in the Port of Duluth-Superior last week as the 2013 commercial shipping season got underway on the far western edge of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system. The port’s first departure was the Mesabi Miner at 9:30 Wednesday morning, March 20.  

The Miner began loading coal Tuesday morning at the Superior Midwest Energy Terminal, after which the 1,000-footer shifted to the port authority terminal to load and install a drive motor for its conveyor system prior to making a cross-lake delivery to Marquette. She returned to Duluth over the weekend to load iron ore at the CN dock for delivery to Indiana Harbor on Lake Michigan. The Canadian-flag CSL Tadoussac headed to Duluth over the weekend from winter layup in Thunder Bay to load iron ore pellets at the CN dock.

Mesabi Miner headed out into Lake Superior through the Duluth Ship Canal.
Photo by Robert Welton/courtesy Duluth Seaway Port Authority

Crews reported earlier in March get wintering vessels ready to sail. U.S. Coast Guard cutters Alder and Mackinaw, along with Heritage Marine tugs were busy breaking ice to open shipping channels and slips around the harbor in preparation for vessel departures last week. 

The departing lakers secured their places in line with other downbound traffic near Sault Ste. Marie (MI) for the reopening of the Soo Locks on March 25. Likewise, a line-up of upbound lakers, led by the Paul R. Tregurtha, waited on the eastern side of the locks, indicating the Twin Ports will see regular marine traffic patterns by the end of March.  

The Soo Locks gateway allows lake carriers – some measuring more than 1,000 feet in length – to move raw materials like iron ore, coal, limestone, cement and salt between Lake Superior and Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie. It is also one of 16 sets of locks along the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway that link North America’s heartland with global markets. 

"We ended the 2012 season having moved just shy of 37 million short tons of cargo through the Port of Duluth-Superior, nearly on par with the previous year,” said Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. "If the U.S. steel market remains strong and the resurgence of manufacturing in and around the Great Lakes basin continues, iron ore shipments should keep a strong pace. Projections for coal exports are up, plus the extension of wind production tax credits should see project cargoes pick up by fall. Depending on weather patterns and global economies, we’d also hope for marginal improvements in grain exports. All in all, the Port of Duluth-Superior should see an increase in activity during 2013.”
 

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