Early initiatives at developing marine container traffic along the St. Lawrence Seaway were unsuccessful and resulted in the withdrawal of services. Recent changes in international container transportation have re-introduced container shipping to American Great Lakes ports, and a unique approach to customs inspections promises to connect inland American container terminals with nearby Canadian destinations.

Introduction

Early efforts at developing container freight traffic along the St. Lawrence Seaway and extending into the Upper Great Lakes date back to the early days of the international movement of containers. The ongoing development of the container trade has resulted in the construction of larger container ships, and internationally, many ports were redeveloped to berth larger container ships that interconnect with railway and truck transport at container terminals. As a result, many railway lines across North America are operating at or near maximum design capacity.

The combination of increased market demand for railway container transportation with minimal increase in railway infrastructure capacity has increased transportation cost per container along several main railway corridors. That occurrence prompted the redevelopment of the Panama Canal to accommodate the larger vessels that sail from Asian ports to East Coast American ports, at competitive per-container transportation costs. It has also made direct maritime container shipping between European ports and the Port of Cleveland on Lake Erie feasible, using container ships that carry fewer than 700 TEU and operate at competitive transportation rates.

Competitive Mini-Ship

Container ships of 14,000 TEU regularly sail between European ports and Port Newark (part of the Port of New York and New Jersey), where railways connect to large cities located around the Great Lakes. While mega-size ships offer very competitive transatlantic container transportation rates, the railway transportation cost per container per unit of distance is very high. A mini-ship that carries less than five percent of the container capacity of the mega-size ship incurs competitive container transportation rates between European ports and ports located around the Upper Great Lakes.

The precedent at Cleveland prompted officials at the Port of Duluth to serve container ships. There is customer demand from overseas for agricultural dry-bulk produce to be shipped inside containers. Both the agricultural sector across the region and the Port of Duluth have responded to the market call. Plans have been underway to the south of Detroit at Monroe in Michigan, to develop a container terminal along with similar plans near Chicago. Development for increased future container transfer is underway at American Great Lakes ports as well as at the Canadian Port of Johnstown on the St. Lawrence Seaway.