Global trade tensions, grain shipments fuel St. Lawrence Seaway
MONTREAL The St. Lawrence Seaway saw its highest cargo numbers since 2007 last year, propelled by a spike in grain shipments and global tariff wars that worked in Canada’s favour.
Traffic hit 40.9 million tonnes in 2018, a seven-per-cent year-overyear rise, according to the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. Grain made up nearly one-third of all tonnage on the 60-year-old waterway, up 20 per cent from 2017.
The towering grain figures come in spite of a major backlog in grain shipments last winter, which Canada’s two main railways responded to with more grain cars, employees, tracks and rail yard expansions.
Trade tensions between the U.S. and other countries worked to the advantage of Canadian exporters, said Bruce Burrows, president of the Chamber of Marine Commerce.
A Chinese tariff on U.S. soybeans and retaliatory European tariffs on U.S. corn spurred more shipments from Canada, which enjoyed a strong corn crop last year, he said.
“Clearly the trade negotiation environment that we saw in 2018 has been a driver.”
Meanwhile a drought and summer heatwave across parts of Russia and northern Europe wilted cereal production levels and prompted livestock farmers to import more corn from North America as regional prices rose.
The free-trade deal between Canada and the European Union has also boosted shipping, Montreal’s Maritime Employers Association said last fall.
Corn exports have more than doubled year over year to 782,000 tonnes since Aug. 1, according to the Canadian Grain Commission. Soybean exports shot up 15 per cent to 3.2 million tonnes in the same period.
Iron ore traffic on the St. Lawrence Seaway dropped 10 per cent to 7.4 million tonnes, however, amid last summer’s ongoing tariffs of 25-per-cent on steel that crosses the Canada-u.s. border.