CORNWALL – After seven months of the year, traffic and cargo on the St. Lawrence Seaway is down compared to last year.
Numbers from the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation this week show the number of ships is down 6.3 per cent or 121 ships as of the end of July (total 1,794), compared to the same period in 2018.
Overall cargo is down almost five per cent (16.5 million metric tons compared to 17.3 million in 2018), driven by big drops in general cargo (35 per cent) and coal (16 per cent).
The seaway corporation has been riding gains over the last two years with tonnage up seven per cent (41 million metric tons) last year and up 16 per cent over the last two years.