Port Statistics: Montreal, Great Lakes, Virginia

U.S. Great Lakes/Seaway Port Traffic Strong in April

Despite lingering ice cover, U.S. ports along the Great Lakes-Seaway System are reporting cargo traffic gains from year ago, according to a summary review by the U.S. St. Lawrence Development Corporation.

"In 2015, we are excited to continue the momentum from 2014 when we finished the season with a 20 percent increase in overall tonnage," said Paul Toth, president and CEO of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. "Our shipyard and terminals have experienced a very productive start – we’ve had five consecutive dry dockings at the shipyard and are up 35 percent in tonnage over 2014 with increases in every commodity category."

"There has been a good mix of marine cargo traffic early on in 2015," said Joe Cappel, PPM®, the port authority’s vice president of business development. "We have seen project cargo, agricultural products, pig iron, steel, aluminum, bulk materials and petroleum products rapidly circulating through the terminals in a fast paced start to the season."

The Port of Monroe officially opened for business on April 19 with a delivery of coal by Interlake Steamship Co.’s bulker Paul R. Tregurtha to DTE Energy’s Monroe power plant.

"It is only fitting that the first vessel call was that of a record setter, as the Port of Monroe has achieved its greatest tonnage throughput on record for the last two seasons. The 2013 shipping season saw the highest tonnage on record since the port’s creation in 1932, and 2014 bested that by over 200,000 tons," said Port Director Paul C. LaMarre III.

"The 2015 shipping season is shaping up for yet another exponential tonnage increase with a record number of synthetic gypsum cargoes booked for both international and domestic customers," he added. "Coal, limestone, and liquid asphalt will prove to be steady with another anticipated surge of salt cargoes late in the season. These cargoes coupled with private investment from the port’s cargo handling partner, DRM Terminal Services, will inevitably lead to another record shipping season."

During the past two years, the Port of Monroe has experienced its most significant dredging in decades. The entire harbor is now dredged to its authorized depth.

The Port of Oswego Authority reports increases in cargo traffic over the same time last year. "Our aluminum shipments are ahead of 2014 when we saw a 30 percent increase," said Zelko Kirincich, executive director and CEO. "To date we have received 11,000 metric tons of aluminum from Sept Iles on McKeil Marine barges headed for the Novelis plant for aluminum sheet production for their automotive clients. We anticipate another robust year, especially as plans move ahead to designate the port as an official USDA grain inspection/weighing site."

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority has had another strong start to the shipping season. "International tonnage is up significantly due in part to new cargoes such as steel pipe from Europe," explained David Gutheil, vice president of maritime and logistics. "Spliethoff has added a second vessel to the Cleveland-Europe Express Liner Service which is now bi-weekly versus the monthly shipments we had in 2014, and these shipments have already increased demand in the container market. We expect our numbers to continue in the positive category throughout this year."

"The pace of shipping is strong. Fednav, Polsteam, and Spliethoff ships have all called on the Port of Milwaukee during the first month of the international shipping season bringing in raw materials and transporting manufactured goods. 2015 is shaping up to be another good year in Milwaukee," Acting Port Director Paul Vornholt said.

"The Waukegan Harbor is currently undergoing dredging of the Outer Harbor and Approach Channel to 22 feet," explained General Manager, Randy Rogers. "Upon completion of this project, the Waukegan Port District will re-open to commercial shipping after an absence of two years. We are looking forward to handling a significant amount of tonnage in cement, gypsum and project cargoes as the Port returns to the business of a commercial harbor."

Virginia: April’s TEU Volumes Hit 210,000; Gains by Truck and Rail

The Port of Virginia reports traffic through its Hampton Roads container terminals grew again in April, with the box count up 5.5 percent from a year ago to 210,177 TEUs.

As indicated in the attachment, the April data also show increases a year ago of 3.4 percent in container cargo tonnage, 3.3 percent for truck moves, 9.4 percent for rail containers, and 1.3 percent for vessel calls. Declines were posted by breakbulk cargo, Virginia Inland port containers, vehicles, and barge containers. TEU throughput for January-April was up 8.5 percent compared to the first four months of 2014.

Declines were posted by break bulk cargo, Virginia Inland port containers, vehicles, and barge containers. TEU throughput for January-April was up 8.5 percent compared to the first four months of 2014.

"April was the second month we have had so far this year with volumes above 200,000 TEUs and we are expecting this kind of volume to become the norm," said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. "To prepare for this level of volume we continue to invest in cargo conveyance equipment, add members to the operations team, implement technology, improve communications and make those strategic moves necessary to create capacity and improve throughput."