Icebound vessels on the move
UPDATE: With the USCG cutters Mackinaw and Spar and the CCGS cutter Griffon opening up the track in the ice, the six vessels that had been waiting to continue westbound were on the move at first light Tuesday. The strong northwest winds died down overnight and shifted to the south. They took advantage of a weather window, since another system moving in Wednesday is expected to bring more strong winds and a mix of rain and snow.
Ice, northwest winds stall upbound shipping at the Soo
Sault Ste. Marie, MI – It has been three days since the upbound vessels Arthur M. Anderson, John G. Munson, Captain Henry Jackman, American Mariner , Michipicoten and Presque Isle passed the Gros Cap Reef light, west of the Soo Locks. They didn’t get far. All of them continue to sit in the ice, thanks to Mother Nature.
NW winds have driven Lake Superior ice into Whitefish Bay and down into the Soo Locks approaches. The bad weather is expected to continue this week and there is no word on when the vessels will start to move.
“We have to lead them one by one,” said U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Services Director Mark Gill. “Because (the ice) is so thick, we can only do one at a time.” Today’s northwest wind has not helped matters,” Gill explained when calling Whitefish Bay “The drain of Lake Superior. The wind is pressing ice down,” he said, counting on tomorrow’s south wind to free things up a bit.
“This is a normal occurrence for this time of year,” Gill said. “The weather is untimely but normal.”
Meanwhile, USCG Spar, headed for her new home port of Duluth, was upbound late Monday.
Boatnerd Staff Report
Manistee released, tow resumes
By mid-afternoon Monday, the tug Beverly M 1 managed to release the Manistee from her strand and the tow resumed its voyage to Port Colborne, ON. They are showing an ETA for 6 AM Wednesday.
Sinking Lake Superior tugboat leaking oil into Duluth Harbor
Duluth, MN – The saga of the Lake Superior continues, with the U.S. Coast Guard discovering the tugboat is leaking oil.
The privately-owned retired U.S. Army Corps tugboat, named Lake Superior, began listing over the weekend while docked at its slip off Railroad Street near Pier B and the Compass Minerals dock, and by Monday morning, the stern of the vessel was underwater because ice around it had melted.
Federal certified contractors responded to the slip on Thursday morning and discovered at least one gallon of oil coming out of the vessel, Joseph McGinnis, the waterways management branch chief with the U.S. Coast Guard, told Bring Me The News on Friday.
“The contractors placed sorbent material around the vessel to absorb the oil and contain the pollution,” McGinnis said.
Meanwhile, the 7,500 gallons of fuel and oil on board the tugboat is believed to be secured but refloating the tug to drain the potential pollutants “is not possible at this time due to 6-8 feet of ice inside of the vessel,” he added.
The Coast Guard is working with the contractors to mitigate the situation and pollution responders will continue to conduct daily site visits to monitor the situation.
“Coast Guard’s focus is on protecting the environment. Once the environmental hazards are removed, the Coast Guard will have completed its mission. The fate of the vessel afterwards will be up to the owner,” McGinnis said.
It’s still not clear what caused the tugboat to start taking on water, with McGinnis telling Bring Me The News on Wednesday the hope is that question will be answered when the vessel is lifted out.
McGinnis encourages members of the public to call 218-725-3800 or 906-635-3233 if they see a vessel sinking or notice “any large sheens of oil” in the water.
BringMeTheNews.com
New Canada Steamship Line’s Nukumi arrives at Halifax
Halifax, NS – Canada Steamship Line’s newest ship, the Nukumi, arrived March 27 on its delivery trip from the Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China via the Pacific Ocean and Panama Canal.
Built to carry salt, the ship will operate from the Mines Seleine mine in the Magdalen Islands to ports around eastern Canada and into the Great Lakes. Salt is a notoriously hard cargo on ships, and this one has been purpose built, in cooperation with Windsor Salt, to withstand the rigors of that trade.
Measuring 22,715 gt, 25,800 dwt, the ship was temporarily registered in the Bahamas for the delivery tripbut will be re-flagged Canadian and registered in Halifax before entering service.
The ship is named Nukumi, pronounced “noo-goo-mee”, for the legendary wise old grandmother figure of the Native American Mi’kmaq people, traditional occupants of the unceded lands of eastern Canada.
Shipfax / Mac Mackay
Steel stock prices soaring to highest level since 2013
The stock prices of American steelmakers, including Northwest Indiana’s largest steelmakers, have been soaring since Russia invaded Ukraine, reaching their highest level in nearly a decade.
Russia’s war is expected to hobble the country’s steel exports as the world swiftly responded with a flurry of economic sanctions. The World Steel Association estimated Russia made 76 million tons of steel last year, a 6% year-over-year increase.
Russia is the world’s fifth-biggest steel-producing country, trailing only China, India, Japan and the United States.
Steel exports from Russia almost immediately halted after the attack on Ukraine at a time when steel demand in North America is growing.
Investors have become bullish in the stock of U.S. steelmakers as Russia being sidelined from the world market is likely to restrict supply and drive up prices. Some industry analysts forecast hot-rolled steel prices could again exceed $1,500 a ton.
U.S. Steel stock rose from $23.37 a share on Feb. 23, the day before Russia invaded Ukraine, to more than $38 a share during trading Friday.
Cleveland-Cliffs’ stock rose from $18.74 a share on Feb. 23 to more than $32 a share during trading Friday. It reached a nine-year high of $32.67 on Thursday.
“Russia’s invasion a month ago nearly instantly set off a butterfly effect across the steel markets,” JP Morgan analyst Michael Glick said in a note. “If we don’t see a resumption in Black Sea exports in the coming quarters, which is our base case, it’s hard to see what is going to supply that demand.”
NW Indiana Times
