Great Lakes fleet prepares for 2024 shipping season
STURGEON BAY, WI – Large freighters were on the move in Door County Monday
morning as vessels gathered for the Winter Fleet lay up at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding
in Sturgeon Bay.
A few miles northwest of Sturgeon Bay, a team of tug boats helped the area’s latest
maritime arrival, the 727-foot long freighter American Mariner. Paul Klapatch and LuAnn
Ferron of Sturgeon Bay say Bullhead Point across the channel from Fincantieri Bay
Shipbuilding is a popular spot to watch ships.
“My wife and I come down here twice a day, and she belongs to a site called Ship
Watchers. And anytime these ships are coming in, we like to come down here and
check them out, and watch them come up the bay,” said Klapatch.
“The American Mariner is coming in. She’s been kind of fun to watch on Ship Watchers,
because she was trolling up and down the other coast in Lake Michigan for several
days. And then she finally went over the top, and came back down,” said Ferron.
“All the Great Lakes ships need to find somewhere to go during what we call hard water
season,” said Sam Perlman, Door County Maritime Museum deputy director.
Perlman says the Mariner is part of Sturgeon Bay’s Winter Fleet. “We’ll have anywhere
between 12 and 16 vessels parked at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding. They kind of Jenga
them in, and it will be probably anywhere between two and three miles of boat,” he said.
Perlman says the repair and maintenance schedule makes it a busy time at the
shipyard, and around town too. “There are folks who come in, want to spend time, want
to see the vessels. They’ll come into the museum, they’ll eat at local restaurants,” he
said.
Back at Bullhead Point, the American Mariner continues to creep. “The ships have
always been fascinating. I thought everybody knew about ships growing up, and it’s like
no, it’s very unique to us,” Ferron said.
The Winter Fleet will remain in port typically until the Soo Locks on Lake Superior open
again for the season. This year, that’s scheduled for April 24.
WTAQ
Tug Manitou changes hands
Reports from the northeast lower Michigan area indicate the Malcom Marine Inc. tug
Manitou has been sold to Ryba Marine Construction of Cheboygan, MI.
The Port Huron-based tug, which is usually stationed in Alpena during the winter for ice-breaking, tied
up at the Ryba dock on Monday.
Malcolm Marine has been in the marine construction, towing and salvage business for
over 60 years, with the Manitou being captained by Dave Malcom, son of the founders.
Saginaw River – Commercial
Shipping Season Report – 2023
By Todd A. Shorkey
The 2023 shipping season for the Saginaw River is now complete, and while the overall
number of commercial vessel passages declined from the previous year, it still ended
up being a very interesting season with a few exciting firsts along the way.
The downturn in the number of vessel passages can be attributed to two things: The
elimination of the use of coal at the Consumers Energy, Dan E. Karn power plant in
Essexville and no new deliveries of wind turbine components for wind farm projects.
After 16 coal deliveries to the Consumers Energy power plant in 2022, that number was
zero in 2023. Also in 2022, there were 11 deliveries of wind turbine components such as
blades, tower segments, hubs, and nacelles. Again, that number dropped to zero in
2023. If you factor in the resulting 27 lost loads from these segments, the number of
deliveries in 2023 would have been ahead of last season by a small number, so it is
encouraging to see the other markets remaining stable and even increasing as in the
case of the cement market.
Even though the number of passages declined in 2023, the season was still fourth
busiest on the Saginaw River over the past 15 years. I don’t think we will ever see the
big 300 plus vessel passage seasons that we did when I first started keeping track of
these vessel passages during the early to mid-2000s, but there are areas in which we
could see increased traffic in the future.
I have to mention this every season, because the recognition is definitely warranted: A
lot of hard work continues to be put in by the industry leaders, not just here on the
Saginaw River locally, but across the entire Great Lakes region.
These leaders continue to actively pursue improvements in infrastructure and to
diversify the type of products that are transported by water. The resulting victories,
when they happen, allow more opportunities to utilize maritime assets to move
products, moving it more economically and more efficiently than other modes of
transportation. More than ever, this continues to be crucial as traditional high-volume
cargo such as coal and taconite are seeing changes.
Coal fired, electric power generating plants continue to be taken off-line. Many changes
are also happening in the steel industry, with changes in company ownership,
production and steel-making methods.
On the Saginaw River, there are no longer any
coal fired electrical generating units. Consumers Energy’s Dan E. Karn plant has only
has two remaining electrical generating units, powered by natural gas and oil. The plant
is currently scheduled to be retired completely in 2031. As it does each year, it
continues to be my hope that the work being put in now by these leaders in Great Lakes
Shipping will continue to lead to more opportunities for commercial shipping and better
things to come going forward into the future.
The following report is a look back on the 2023 commercial shipping season on the
Saginaw River, using data that I have collected over this period.
The 2023 season officially started on March 12th with the arrival of the tug Samuel de
Champlain and cement barge Innovation, delivering a cargo of powdered cement to the
Holcim Cement Dock in Essexville. The season then ended the same way it began, with
a cement delivery to Holcim, this time by the steamer Alpena, arriving January 4th,
2024, during a string of unseasonably warm weather and no ice in sight on the Saginaw
River. The 2023 season on the Saginaw River lasted for a total of 299 days, 34 days
longer than in 2022. The start of the 2023 season was 32 days earlier than in 2022, with
the end of the season two days later than in 2022.
For the 2023 commercial shipping season, there were a grand total of 171 commercial
vessel passages on the Saginaw River, representing a decrease of 21 passages
compared to the 2022 season. These passages were made by 33 different vessels,
three fewer than the previous year, representing 14 different vessel management
companies, also three fewer than last year.
Looking at other numbers from the 2023 season, deliveries were made to a total of 14
individual docking locations along the banks of the Saginaw River. Some of these dock
locations serve more than one product or type of customer. One of these is the Wirt
Dock in Essexville, where in addition to sand and stone cargo, fertilizer is also delivered
and placed in domed storage buildings. The second would be the Port Fisher slip,
where aggregate cargo is delivered for Bay Aggregates, and liquid asphalt is offloaded
for Bit-Mat Products of Michigan and placed in their liquid storage tanks. A third would
be the Port Fisher Terminals Dock, where foreign saltwater vessels can offload various
cargos such as wind turbine components, industrial machinery, or other bulk cargo, and
tug/barge units or tankers can deliver liquid cargo such as calcium chloride or liquid
fertilizer.
With this in mind, there were 16 facilities that received cargo in 2023, one fewer than in
2022 due to the elimination of coal deliveries at Consumers Energy in Essexville. The
individual dock seeing the most vessel traffic in 2023 was the Port Fisher Terminals/Bay
Aggregates Dock in Bay City, with 42 vessel deliveries. This is one less than recorded
during the previous season. The second most deliveries went to the Wirt Stone Dock in
Saginaw with 33, followed by the Wirt Stone Dock in Bay City with 32 deliveries and the
Holcim Cement dock in Essexville with 31 deliveries.
These top docks accounted for 57% of the total commercial vessel deliveries in 2023.
The two largest companies, Fisher Companies and Wirt, each with multiple docks along
the Saginaw River, accounted for a total of 55% of all commercial vessel deliveries. Wirt
Family Docks had a total of 84 deliveries, with Port Fisher docks accounting for 49
deliveries. In all, accounting for split cargos by some vessels, which unloaded at two or
more different docks during the same visit, there were 244 deliveries to the various
docks along the Saginaw River. This is 19 more actual dock deliveries than during the
2022 season. These numbers show that over 70 vessels arrived with split loads,
unloading at more than one dock.
The following table outlines the docks delivered to along with the number of vessels
stopping there:
2023 – Saginaw River Dock Deliveries
Port Fisher/Bay Aggregates Dock – Bay City 42
Wirt Stone Dock – Saginaw 33
Wirt Stone Dock – Bay City 32
Holcim Cement Dock – Essexville 31
GM Dock – Saginaw 23
Saginaw Rock Products/Burroughs Saginaw Dock 20
Wirt Sand and Stone Dock – Essexville 16
Saginaw Asphalt/Buena Vista Dock – Saginaw 15
Burroughs Materials/Levy Dock – Zilwaukee 11
Burroughs North Dock – Essexville 6
Port Fisher/Occidental Chemical Dock – Bay City 5
Wirt Sand & Stone Fertilizer Dock – Essexville 3
U.S. Paving & Stone Materials Dock – Carrollton 3
Sargent Dock – Zilwaukee 2
Port Fisher/Bit-Mat Products Dock – Bay City 1
Port Fisher Terminals Dock – Bay City 1
Total Deliveries 244
This year, I also broke down the number of visits to the lower river docks, or docks
between the mouth of the Saginaw River and Liberty Bridge, of which there are nine,
and the upper river docks, or docks near the Zilwaukee Bridge to the Sixth Street
Turning Basin, of which there were seven. There were a total of 133 deliveries to lower
river docks and a total of 85 deliveries where the vessel had to pass through the Bay
City draw bridges on their way to the upper river to unload at Saginaw-area docks.
The following table outlines this and will be a good comparison for the future;
The tug-barge units were busy on the Saginaw River during 2023, with four of the top
five spots for total number of visits taken by tug-barge combos. Again for 2023, as has
become the norm on the Saginaw River, the Rand Logistics, Inc./Grand River
Navigation tug Olive L. Moore, paired with the self-unloading barge Menominee, once
again defended their title of “Workhorse of the Saginaw River,” making more trips to the
river in 2023 than any other vessel. The pair logged 39 visits this season, one more
than in 2022. Olive L. Moore/Menominee has held this title 17 out of the past 18 years,
logging an incredible 654 visits to the Saginaw River during this tim. In second place
was Interlake Steamship Co.’s tug Dorothy Ann, paired with the self-unloading barge
Pathfinder. which had 15. Rounding out the top five most frequent vessels were
Samuel de Champlain/Innovation with 14 visits, G.L. Ostrander/Integrity with 9, and
Sam Laud, the only non-tug/barge combo in the top five with 8 visits.
The fleet leading the way with the most cargo deliveries to the Saginaw River during the
2023 season was far and away Rand Logistics Inc. Their subsidiaries Lower Lakes
Towing and Grand River Navigation tallied 83 vessel passages, an increase of two
deliveries over 2022 and accounted for almost half of all deliveries in 2023 at 49%. They
have now been leading the way on the Saginaw River for 16 of the past 17 years. The
Interlake Steamship Co./Interlake Logistics Solutions logged the second most visits with
27 trips, a decrease of 10 visits from 2022. Coming in third place was Holcim
Cement/Andrie, Inc. with 23 deliveries to the Saginaw River, up nine trips from the 2022
season. These three companies accounted for 78% of all deliveries on the Saginaw
River in 2023. Rounding out the top five companies were Algoma Central Corp. with 15
visits and Inland Lakes Management with seven.
There were a number of vessels that visited the Saginaw River in 2022 that did not
make a return visit here in 2023. These vessels included local favorite Paul R.
Tregurtha and the tug Leonard M. There were also the following saltwater vessels
which had been here during the 2022 season but not making a return visit: Sloman
Discoverer, Charlie, Sophia, Nunalik, BBC Song, BBC Kwiatkowski, BBC Eagle, Happy
River and Happy Rover.
Vessels back on the river in 2023 which did not have a visit in 2022 were Algoma
Compass, Robert S. Pierson, tug Meredith Ashton, and the saltwater vessel
Minervagracht. The tug Sharon M I was also back, pushing the barge Huron Spirit in
place of Leonard M. There were also a number of first-ever visits in 2023. Interlake
Steamship Co.’s new Mark W. Barker made five trips here, McKeil Marine Ltd.’s recent
acquisition Northern Venture made her first trip here and the Nova-Algoma Cement
Carrier NACC Antigua also had her first trip to the Saginaw River.
Other vessels on the Saginaw River during the 2023 season were the tug Manitou, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife vessel Spencer F. Baird, U.S.E.P.A. vessel Mudpuppy II, and NOAA
vessel 5033. Government vessels included the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spar, U.S,
Coast Guard Cutter Bristol Bay, and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey vessel.
Some notable stories from the 2023 season:
- In February 2020, it was announced that Wilkinson Minerals would be opening a
facility on the Saginaw River, just east of the Independence Bridge in Bay City, and
begin pumping salt brine from a large deposit known as the Sylvania Sandstone
Formation. In April 2021, they an-nounced they would be “tripling their investment” of
$50 million to $150 million in Bay City. Wilkinson Minerals has stated that “the company
will produce both liquid and dry salt products, with the liquid products primarily shipped
out on the river.” In the April 2021 report, plans were to have the plant up and running
late 2023 or early 2024. In 2023, some site clearing was completed, but no other visible
work is underway and it is unknown when the company will begin operation. - On June 22nd, the Great Lakes Towing tug North Dakota arrived on the Saginaw
River to begin her stay, stationed here for the immediate future. Docking at the old
Lafarge Cement Dock in Carrollton, North Dakota assisted at least eight vessels during
the 2023 season, including Algoma Buffalo, Iver Bright, Dorothy Ann/Pathfinder, Samuel
de Champlain/Innovation, NACC Antigua, Algoma Intrepid, and Minervagracht. It is
unknown how long the North Dakota will remain stationed on the Saginaw River, but the
word is that it will be as long as there is a need and work for her to do. - The NACC Antigua was a surprise visitor during the 2023 season, delivering a cargo
of powdered cement to the Holcim Cement dock in Essexville. Her cargo originated in
Algeria in North Africa. The demand for cement was up this season and local suppliers
could not keep up, so in an effort to keep customers happy and have product available
to them, the NACC Antigua cargo was ordered. The Holcim dock received 31 deliveries
in 2023, up from 26 last season. - The self-unloading barge Joseph H. Thompson, pushed by the tug Laura L.
VanEnkevort made her last-ever visit to the Saginaw River on June 24th, before
heading to the Marine Recycling Corporation in Port Colborne, ON to be scrapped. The
Thompson was a frequent visitor to the Saginaw River over the years, pushed by the
tug Joseph H. Thompson, Jr. and then later the Laura L. Vanenkevort. So long old
friend. - Minervagracht was the only saltwater vessel to make a delivery from overseas to the
Saginaw River in 2023. She called on the Port Fisher Terminals Dock in Bay City on
November 17th, carrying process equipment for the Hemlock Semiconductor Plant in
Hemlock, Michigan. - Interlake Steamship Company’s new vessel, Mark W. Barker, made five visits to the
Saginaw River in 2023, between May 27th and July 4th. This was the first season in
operation on the Great Lakes for the Barker. Built at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, she is the first new laker to be built on the Great Lakes in
more than 35 years. Mark W. Barker is a very versatile vessel, capable of carrying a
wide range of cargo to virtually any dock on the Great Lakes.
As the shipping industry continues to evolve, it is the hope that commercial traffic on the
Saginaw River will at least remain stable and hopefully grow as the products and
materials handled here continue to evolve and expand. Hopefully 2024 continues to
expand on the success of the 2023 season and will be a safe and profitable one for
everyone.
Disclaimer: Please know that information contained in this report is 99.9% accurate. I
work extremely hard striving to make this information as accurate as possible, but
please remember, there is always the possibility there may have been a vessel passage
or dock delivery that I missed, as tracking vessels on the Saginaw River for the entire
season is not an easy or an exact science. Thank you for taking the time to read my
year-end report. I hope you find it informative and enjoyable. I will see everyone again
in 2024 for my 20th season of logging commercial vessel movements on the Saginaw
River.
Todd A. Shorkey, Saginaw River Images
Winter lay-up list is now active
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