New technology and ships make maritime commerce more efficient, adaptable, and environmentally friendly.

Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Companies operating in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River region are making one of the biggest investments in new ships since the birth of the modern St. Lawrence Seaway.

Codi Kozacek

Circle of Blue

The Algoma Equinox slid into the water for the first time at a shipyard in Nantong, China, on December 24, 2012. The 225-meter (740-foot) freighter was destined for the Great Lakes, an early participant in the mid-continent shipping industry’s biggest upgrade in half a century.

Over the past five years, private companies and governments in the Great Lakes region have committed $US 7 billion to build new ships, improve port infrastructure, and update locks and breakwaters along the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, according to an industry survey released this year by the Chamber of Marine Commerce in Ottawa.

Made in response to an aging fleet, more stringent environmental regulations, and an increasingly global economy, the investment is shaping the course of Great Lakes shipping for the next 30 to 40 years. At the same time, advancements in technology are providing ship captains and navigators with an increasingly accurate view of shipping channels, allowing them to navigate the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River system with more precision. In combination, the developments mean more cargo can be moved with less fuel, fewer emissions, and in shallower water.

It is the largest infusion of money into Great Lakes shipping since the construction of the modern St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, according to Stephen Brooks, president of the Chamber of Marine Commerce. The Seaway project cost a total of $US 470 million—equivalent to about $US 4.6 billion today. Most of it was financed by Canada. Together with the Welland Canal that circumnavigates Niagara Falls, and the Soo Locks that enable passage between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the navigation system allows ships to travel 3,700-kilometers (2,300 miles) from Duluth, Minnesota, to the Atlantic Ocean at Sept-Iles, Quebec. Every year, vessels transiting the system carry about 164 million metric tons of cargo including bulk shipments of iron ore, road salt, corn, and wheat, as well as specialized products like wine, furniture, and clothing from all over the world.

“[The investment] really is quite unprecedented,” Brooks told Circle of Blue. “And I think it’s important to keep that perspective, that this is something we may not see again in many of our lives, this level of investment.”

New Ships Bolster Aging Fleet

The vast majority of the money being spent—nearly $US 4 billion—is funding new ships. For years, the industry in Canada was hamstringed by a 25 percent import duty on ships purchased abroad, according to Brooks. When that was lifted in 2010, companies began investing heavily in their fleets.

“Up until 2009, the fleet of Canadian ships in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region had reached an average age of 35 years, which is quite old for these ships. Old certainly in terms of their technology. Old in terms of efficiency. And old in terms of their ability to comply with increasingly stringent environmental regulations,” Brooks said. “The industry was at quite a critical crossroads. In order to continue and be sustainable, and to provide the valuable services that these ships provide for both North American industry and people around the world, they had to figure out a way to get new ships.”