Maritime Transportation And Shipping Talk

The American Secretary of Transportation’s official blog “Fast Lane” calls this past year a very successful and productive year for the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The outline of successful year to the blogger might not be traffic and increase in tonnage movement. What they are referring to is the success in accomplishments like ballast water management and the impact that it has for the Greater Lakes Area. As they said, this is accredited with no new invasive species found in the Great Lakes area since 2006. This type of program has since become an International norm for Ballast water management so the old days of dumping ballast water anywhere anytime is History. Her in The Seaway, inspectors are enforcing the rules. Hats off to the Seaway for this one!

What about traffic and tonnage movements? It will follow on the next post as we continue to look at the past year.

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Impact Of Maritime Transportation On Local Communities is way not enough on the subject

The general public doesn’t really think about the importance of Maritime Transportation and the impact it has on the economy. I have been thinking about this for a while and I like to write a bit about it, especially the impact Maritime Transportation has on local communities along the Saint Lawrence River and let me tell you that it is a lot more than most people think.
The Canadian Federal Government and some Provincial Governments have done some studies on this and it would be great to put some of these studies into layman’s terms.

If a full understanding is desired one have to take into account the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the contribution it has had on the whole area since it was fully operational in the late 50’s (1959 I think). Looking at the manpower both in USA and Canada one can start by the beginning like for instance maritime schools and colleges both in USA and Canada. The Canadian and US Coast Guard colleges and the contribution they both have on making the River System Navigable by commercial shipping. The history also makes you think of the steel industry along the River System. Having a great way for receiving raw material and sending finished products to markets all over the world one would think that it would be a flourishing industry.
Port terminals are old and worn down in many places and serves as a sign of bygone glory days for that particular industry. This is a general view as perceived by the public. Some of it is true I guess but there are a lot of new terminals and modernization happening also and this is offsetting some of those older terminals.
Looking at Canadian shipping companies one can see that some have disappeared, others have grown and modernized their fleet and found new niches where there are cargo to transport. Ship construction has seen a lot of decline in Canada and one can safely say that the local cost of material and manpower is the major factor in pushing this industry out of the competitive market. We have seen government intervention in various taxation areas easing off so that local companies can afford to build ships overseas. It is a known fact that CSL(Canada Steamship Lines) and Algoma Shipping have new building programs going overseas. Both companies are renewing their fleet and adding tonnage to their pool of ships. Both companies are also involved with shipping outside of North America.
So in recap; we have briefly touched on the steel industry and Canadian shipping companies. Let us follow up on this subject and dig a bit deeper and get some more specifics.

Technorati Tags: Saint Lawrence Seaway, Maritime Transportation, Economical Impact