Apart from grain shipments, which rose by 3.3%, cargo in all other categories have fallen behind last year’s volume between the March 22 opening of the navigation season and the end of April, according to statistics released by the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation. Total combined traffic for the period amounted to 3.9 million tonnes versus the year-earlier 4.3 million tonnes – a drop of 8.85%.

For the early period of shipping activity, Canadian and U.S. grain rose to 1.21 million tonnes while iron ore declined by 34% to 530,000 tonnes and coal decreased by 13.5% to 235,000 tonnes.

In other categories, dry bulk, liquid bulk and general cargo declined respectively by 3.6%, 9.3% and 3%.

(Welland Canal photo)