THUNDER BAY - It’s an early start to the shipping season this year at the Port of Thunder Bay and while there is no top hat to be worn, the first ocean going vessel arriving in port is still worth a celebration.
“It’s always an exciting time when the first ocean vessel comes to town,” said Tim Heney, Port of Thunder Bay CEO. “Lake vessels you just have to cross Lake Superior to qualify. The ocean vessels come from overseas, which makes it a little different.”
The M.V. Federal Cedar arrived on April 4 making it the first salty to enter port in Thunder Bay for the 2021 shipping season.
“It’s on the earlier side of opening,” Heney said. “Our record is March 30 and the latest opening we had for an ocean vessel was April 30 back in 2014. So certainly on the earlier end of the scale.”
The Federal Cedar, owned and operated by Canada’s largest ocean-going group, Fednav, will be loaded with 12,000 metric tonnes of wheat before departing directly for Puerto Rico.
Lake vessels started arriving on March 26 and so far there have been more than 15 vessels to enter the port.
“We are probably above last year, which was pretty strong as well, so I would say it’s a strong start,” Heney said.
The earlier start to the season is in part due to low ice coverage on Lake Superior, even in the harbour.
“It’s pretty free now once the wind took it away,” Heney said. “It was a fairly light year for ice. There was no ice on the lake itself, just in the Thunder Bay harbour.”
Normally the first ocean vessel is greeted with a top hat ceremony, though due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Port of Thunder Bay will be hosting a virtual ceremony on Wednesday where Federal Cedar Captain Pradeep Dattajirao Nalawade and chief engineer Kalyan Kumar Roy will be presented with the top hat honours.
Looking ahead to this year, Heney said the port is expecting another strong season, as hopefully markets overseas begin to return to normal.
“They are predicting another strong grain shipments for the first half,” he said. “The second half is dependent on the harvest and it’s hard to predict the weather conditions. But there is also some talk that Europe will return to normal by the end of the year. But right now things aren’t looking that positive on the COVID front, so it may stay similar to last year, which was very strong for us.”
The port will also see a number of goods moving through, including rail, pipe, structural steel, fertilizer, and possibly more wind turbines.
Last year more than 150 ships docked at the Port of Thunder Bay during the spring season, marking the second-highest total in its history. On average, the port sees between 400 and 500 vessels during the shipping season.
