Reduced traffic from ocean vessels and steel imports bit into the St. Lawrence Seaway’s total cargo volume for 2007, which dropped nine per cent from 2006 to 42.7 million tonnes, according to the company that manages the passage.
Nevertheless, the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. reported that the volume shows “the resilience of the system through the complete economic cycle.”
“While the season started slowly, we enjoyed a strong resurgence in cargo volumes by mid-summer, and this trend continued through the fall,” said CEO Richard Corfe in a release. “We are particularly optimistic that the momentum in project cargoes that we observed this year will carry forward into the future.”
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By “project cargoes” Corfe refers to specialty cargo such as wind turbine components, bound for a number of wind farm projects in Eastern Canada and the eastern U.S.
The seaway management corporation had expected another record- or near-record-long shipping season, and ended up tying the record of 283 days, set in 2006.
The seaway season wrapped up on Dec. 28 when the CSL Group’s Birchglen cleared the St. Lambert Lock at Montreal. The Welland Canal’s last vessel of the season was a Coast Guard cutter on Dec. 29.
