One of Canada's most important transportation and trade networks, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, is undergoing a transformation that will see more than $7-billion worth of investments by 2018.

The upgrades include new docks, locks and freighters on the 3,700-kilometre trade route that links the centre of North America to global markets.

The improvements come as shipping on the seaway has been soaring with cargo volumes hitting 40 million tonnes last year, the highest since the recession.

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"I was here half a dozen years ago and the future wasn't quite as rosy then," said Stephen Brooks, president of the Ottawa-based Chamber of Marine Commerce.

He added that a more permissive regulatory environment is spurring much of the spending.

According to a study released by the chamber on Wednesday, more than $4.8-billion was invested in navigation systems between 2009 and 2013, and another $2.3-billion will be spent on other improvements by 2018. Most of the money came from private companies that rely on the shipping lane.

Some of the spending includes: $4.1-billion on new ships, more than half by Canadian companies on 17 vessels; $1-billion modernizing locks with hands-free mooring and other technology; and more than $1.8-billion on docks, terminals and intermodal connections.

"Modernizing our structures and technology allows companies to export their goods more quickly and cost effectively," said Terence Bowles, chief executive officer of St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., the Canadian government agency that owns and manages the seaway with its U.S. counterpart.

Canada Steamship Lines is among the companies spending big money on the Great Lakes-Seaway. In 2010, it spent about $250-million on six ships built to carry bulk commodities, such as grain and iron ore, becoming the first shipowner to launch a new vessel on the system since 1985.

Louis Martel, vice-president of parent company CSL Group Inc., said prices for the ships were low following the recession that hammered global demand, and the Canadian dollar was strong. And then the federal government eliminated the 25-per-cent duty on imported ships.

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"The Great Lakes fleet was getting older and it was time for us to renew our fleet and get new tonnage," Mr. Martel said from Montreal. "The removal of the duty made all the stars align and made it possible to build new ships and bring new tonnage to our fleet."

CSL manages and own 60 ships, including 22 specially built for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence. The company recently took delivery of one of the ships while another is sailing across the Pacific Ocean.

CSL specializes in self-unloading ships that handle such commodities as grain, salt, iron ore and coal. Demand and prices for these commodities is cyclical and investments to serve these must be made carefully. Lately, the company has seen an increase in tonnage, particularly in grain, but iron ore prices are down and less of it is being shipped, Mr. Martel said.

The Port of Hamilton, on the western end of Lake Ontario, has slowly been transformed from a facility that mainly handled coal and steel for the city's mills. Now it is a diverse port that manages 600 ships a year. After the arrival of grain merchant Parrish and Heimbecker Ltd. in 2010, joining rivals Bunge Corp. and Richardson International Ltd., the port boasts three modern grain terminals that receive a steady stream of trucks bearing corn, soybeans and other crops from the farmland in southwestern Ontario.

About $300-million, mostly from private companies, has been spent upgrading facilities at the port. There is a rail terminal being built that is funded by the city and the province, capping a string of public investments that began in 2008 with new roads and dock walls.

Like the city that surrounds it, the port is booming, said Bruce Wood, CEO of the Hamilton Port Authority. "People with money are coming here. Hamilton has been downtrodden but it's not any more. If you judge things by how many cranes are in your downtown, we haven't had any for decades, and now all of a sudden we're got new hotels and things like that," Mr. Wood said.

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A big challenge the port faces is finding land to expand for warehouses and offices, and scheduling port deliveries where docking times are almost sold out.

"It's been pretty amazing for us," Mr. Wood said.