A user's guide to the Great Lakes St Lawrence Seaway System

But with a limited stock of guaranteed customers, it’s difficult to drum up the cash to add container cranes, on-dock capabilities and the other improvements required to handle cargo efficiently.

“It’s a chicken-and-egg situation,” Van Nieuwkoop explains. “Do they upgrade their port facilities in hope that they’ll be able to service new markets, or do they go get those markets first and, as demand increases, make a case for an upgrade?”

Some relief is coming in the form of federal cash. The government prioritized short-sea shipping infrastructure projects in its 2009 budget, and the US government did the same in its recent stimulus package. If ports use this money in a way that’s useful to shippers, the short-sea segment could take off.

“In some ways, there’s probably never been a more opportune time to get it to the next level,” says Patrick Bohan, manager of business development at the Halifax Port Authority.

You can get close to major population centres…
One advantage of short-sea shipping on the GLSLS is the ability to move product to or from major markets—like Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe or the US Midwest—with minimal time on road or rail.

Great Lakes Feeder Lines, for example, is pursuing liner service at some underused ports near major US population centres—places like Buffalo, Cleveland and Toledo. “It makes a big difference, because trucking or railing cargo to major railheads is where the cost comes in for the shipper,” explains Van Nieuwkoop.
At the Port of Toronto, interim president and CEO Alan Paul is seeing an uptick in cargo destined for the downtown and surrounding area. “We know that the road system is congested,” he says. “It makes a lot of sense to move it as far as possible by water.”

The same strategy works going west. The Port of Thunder Bay has both CN and CP service at the dock, meaning shipments can be whisked westward quickly—an attractive option if the cargo is oversized or overweight. There’s a ready supply of grain for backhaul, too.

…But not in the winter
There’s one inescapable reality of shipping on the GLSLS—much of it is frozen for two or three months of the year. If you are moving cargo year-round, you’ll have to make other arrangements in winter. “During those three months you’re going to have to go back to rail or truck,” admits Heney.

But if your product is seasonal, the downtime may not affect you. Similarly, if you have long lead-times, you may be able to adjust your scheduling to have deliveries made in the navigation season.