Great Lakes fleet

[Denny]

Just noticed on boatnerd AIS map, the Speer is making its second visit to Burns Harbor! They are due there to arrive there on November 3rd I think it is at about 5 P.M. or about 1700 hours give or take.

[Guest]

The GLF is not hauling up-bound limestone for USS, after 30+ years of doing this. It is now being handled by Rand.

[Guest]

The GLF Edwin Gott went to Indiana Harbor a couple times this year.

[E J B]

Perhaps an indication of : Less cargos to be hauled therefore becoming more competitive in pricing...
Picking up the slack from Lower Lakes losing the Mich and scrapping a couple over the last couple of years

[Mr Link]

Brevort has also had the ability to load limestone products for the past seven years, so one can no longer assume a vessel will be loading sand based on the Brevort destination alone.

For what its worth, here is a summary of changes at Brevort over the past decade. In 2017, Sand Products Corp sold the Brevort Sand mine (as well as their sand docks in Cleveland and Buffalo) to Canadian Silica Industries. Sand Products retained ownership of the Brevort dock property (south of US-2) but leased it to Canadian Silica Industries.

Sometime about 2015, Graymont reopened the Hendricks limestone quarry (between Rexton and Newberry). In October 2018 they completed a limestone loading facility at Brevort and loaded at least two vessels yet that season. I get the impression that Graymont's shipping of limestone products has been somewhat sporadic since then. Perhaps only one vessel loaded limestone in 2019 at Brevort. Other years are unknown.

In 2020, in addition to their regular sand production, Canadian Silica Industries (CSI) started marketing and shipping limestone-related products from Brevort. This included Michigan DOT spec 6AA aggregate (roughly 1/4 inch to 1" sized limestone), 26A aggregate (roughly 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch sized limestone) and 2NS sand (a sand made from 30-40% natural sand from Brevort mixed with 60-70% manufactured sand made from crushed limestone). CSI was doing this by purchasing crushed limestone from an unidentified local limestone quarry, hauling it to Brevort and cleaning, processing and blending it at Brevort. Sand Products sued CSI for shipping this product over the leased dock. The lawsuits have been resolved, but I do not know if CSI has resumed shipping limestone- related products out of Brevort.

[Denny]

The Philip R. Clarke just delivered a cargo of ore pellets to the Stelco Dock at Nanticoke and their AIS is showing them now to be headed to Brevort, Michigan next to load a cargo of sand! I’ve never known or heard of the Clarke ever calling on Brevort before so, I wonder then if this can be another first for GLF then? The Presque Isle is headed to Nanticoke now with ore pellets and the Great Republic just delivered sand I would assume then to Buffalo both of which are a bit odd and unusual for both of them.

[Denny]

Although off subject somewhat, both Gary and Indiana Harbor have lately seen a surge of ore pellet deliveries while I’m not seeing too many deliveries lately as far as to Toledo and the Torco Dock, CBT the Cleveland Bulk Terminal and even Stelco in Nanticoke as well. Earlier this season, I seem to recall that Algoma was very busy for a while hauling ore into Stelco at Nanticoke from Duluth-Superior and now I’m not seeing much of that action as of late! Also, there don’t appear to be as much ore shipments to Cleveland CBT along with the Torco Dock as there was earlier in the season. Granted, they still get their share of ore deliveries by vessel it just doesn’t seem as often now. I don’t see many 1,000 footers go to Cleveland CBT or to Toledo and the Torco Dock as I did earlier this year. Even the Gott hasn’t made as many trips to Nanticoke as it used to in previous seasons. Finally, I have noticed also a bit of a drop off as far as ore shipments by 1,000 footers to Conneaut as well. They still get a few ore deliveries at times by the 1,000 footers but again I don’t see it as busy and active as it was earlier in the season. As I mentioned earlier in this post, it seems that more ore shipments now are going to Gary and Indiana Harbor than I’ve seen it in previous years. Just my thoughts only on this is all. Thank You.

[Guest Jon Paul]

GLF has been hauling from and to many different ports this season. Toledo Torco, Cleveland Bulk Terminal, Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor have all seen an definite increase of delivered pellets from GLF boats as I noted in different threads on here.
I'm sure Cliffs is enjoying the competition among American fleets to service their contract needs.
Interlake has Dearborn pretty much locked up and VTB delivers most of the pellets to Toledo Ironville but the other ports I mentioned above have seen a very different mix compared to seasons past.

[Mn bob]

Does the Great Lakes fleet have a new haulage contract? The speer just delivered a load to burns harbor from superior and I see now the John g munson loaded in silver bay and is headed to burns harbor. This is something new as far as I know as to them hauling into burns harbor.