The local port authority is anticipating smooth sailing for Thunder Bay in the coming years.
The Thunder Bay Port Authority held its 13th annual general meeting Thursday to highlight some of the port’s success last year and what the future might bring.
“It was an excellent year for us financially last year as well as cargo so we’re very optimistic going into this year,” CEO Tim Heney said.
The future is bringing a mobile harbor crane to the port for the first time.
With the ability to haul 104 metric tonnes at 36 metres, Heney said the port is going to be much more competitive when it’s up and running later this summer.
“It has a big reach for fairly heavy cargo,” he said. “It puts us into a different league.”
Heney hopes the crane will allow the port to see more regular liner traffic from Europe, which means more cargo through the port after a record year in 2011 with overall cargo up 12 per cent.
With 82 per cent of that traffic coming from grain, Heney said another topic for discussion at the AGM is the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board. When the monopoly ends in August, Heney said the board makes up 70 per cent of all grain traffic through Thunder Bay’s port so it could have a big impact.
But with recent takeovers and new grain terminals in Thunder Bay, the federal government’s decision to end the board has been good for Thunder Bay so far.
“It’s really not known in some ways,” he said. “So far the effects have been positive but we’ll have to wait and see.”
As wind turbines continue to be shipped west, Heney thinks that will be more good news for the port which saw 100,000 freight tones last year.
“We expect to beat that quite handily this year,” he said.
