Seaway Grain Shipments on the Rise with Harvest

Oct 19, 2022

The 2022 harvest helped to boost Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway shipping in the month of September and more gains are expected in the months ahead.

In a release Tuesday, the Chamber of Marine Commerce said Canadian grain shipments through the seaway reached 840,000 tonnes last month. Although year-to-date grain shipments still lag last year by about 20%, the strong rebound in September pushed total seaway cargo volume for the month to nearly 4.2 million tonnes, and the year-to-date total to 23.4 million tonnes. That is still 5.6% below a year earlier, “but the gap continues to shrink,” the release said.

“The strong September tonnage is a good sign and a reflection of what we have been hoping for in recent months,” said Terence Bowles, President and CEO of the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. “There was a nice jump in Canadian grain shipments, and we are seeing the grain pipeline start to fill up. We look for the grain tonnage to continue to be strong in the coming months.”

While Canadian grain remains down, potash (+262%), other general cargo (+181%), petroleum products (+43%) and US grain (+41%) have shown nice gains over 2021, the release noted.

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