Saginaw River 2016 Shipping Season Wrap-Up
After an increase in commercial
vessel passages on the Saginaw River during the 2015 season, there was optimism
that we would again see an increase in commercial traffic for the 2016 season. That
optimism however, never became a reality, with numbers coming in more like the
dismal 2014 season. The following is a
look back at what took place along the banks of the Saginaw River during this
past year:
The 2016 shipping season officially
started on March 19th, with the arrival of the tug Samuel de Champlain and her cement
barge, Innovation. This was the second
year in a row that the pair called on the Lafarge Cement dock in Essexville to
start the season, this time, starting the season twenty one days earlier than
the 2015 season opener. The 2016 season
came to a close on December 18th, when the American Integrity, departed the Consumers
Energy dock in Essexville. This was five
days sooner than the 2015 close, for a season lasting 274 days. For 2016, there were a total of 113 commercial
vessel passages. That is 19 fewer than
the previous season. These passages were
made by 28 different vessels, representing fourteen different companies, an
increase of one more unique vessel and one more company as compared to the 2015
numbers.
Looking at some of the other
statistics from the 2016 season, there were 14 docks receiving cargos this
season. While this number was unchanged from last year, the docks receiving
product however, did change, as the GM Dock in Saginaw, received two cargos,
after not receiving any in 2015. The
North Star Fertilizer Dock in Essexville did not receive any deliveries by boat
in 2016, after receiving two in 2015. The
dock seeing the most traffic in 2016 was the Wirt Stone Dock in Bay City, seeing
25 vessel deliveries. This was the same
number of deliveries as in the 2015 season.
Coming in second was the Bay Aggregates Dock in Bay City, with 22 cargo
deliveries, nine fewer than the previous season, and the Wirt Stone Dock in
Saginaw coming in third, with 20 cargo deliveries. These three docks accounted
for 47% of all vessel deliveries to the Saginaw River in 2016. The top two docks, Bay Aggregates and Bay
City Wirt, have now been the two busiest docks for the past five years running. In all, accounting for split cargos by some
vessels that unloaded at two different docks on the same visit, there were 143 deliveries
to the various docks along the Saginaw River.
This is 19 fewer actual dock deliveries than in 2015.
For the tenth year in a row, the tug
Olive L. Moore, paired with the self-unloading barge Lewis J. Kuber, made the
most trips to the Saginaw River, logging 25 visits. This is a huge decrease from 2015, when the
pair made 55 trips to the river. The
vessel with the second most trips to the Saginaw River, logging 18 trips, and
cutting into the total of the Moore-Kuber due to a new contract acquisition, is
Interlake Steamship Company’s tug Dorothy Ann, paired with the self-unloading
barge Pathfinder. The top two were followed by Manitowoc, with 6 passages and
then the Alpena and the Herbert C. Jackson with 5 visits each.
Lower Lakes Towing/Grand River
Navigation, as they have for many years now, logged the most visits by a fleet
in 2016, with 44 vessel passages. This
was 19 fewer than 2015, but was still good enough for the tenth year in a row
for LLT/GRN in the #1 position, accounting for 39% of the vessel passages on
the Saginaw River. The next busiest
fleet was the Interlake Steamship Company with 23 vessel passages, and then in
third was American Steamship Company with 16 passages. These three companies
accounted for 73% of all deliveries on the Saginaw River in 2016.
There were a number of vessels that
were visitors to the Saginaw River in 2015, that did not make a delivery here
in 2016, with those vessels being American Courage, American Mariner, Buffalo,
Indiana Harbor, Sam Laud, Manistee, Harbour Fountain, Larsholmen, and Chem
Norma. The list of boats that were not visitors
in 2015, but visited the Saginaw River in 2016 were: John J. Boland, Sjard, Dorothy Ann –
Pathfinder, Calumet, Defiance – Ashtabula, Robert S. Pierson, Saginaw, Harbour
Fashion, Happy Ranger, and Floretgracht.
The Floretgracht, Happy Ranger, and Sjard made their first ever
deliveries to the Saginaw River in 2016.
The tugs Manitou and Kimberly Anne were also visitors. The USCG Cutter
Hollyhock made visits to work aids to navigation in the Saginaw River Entrance
Channel, and the tug Gregory J. Busch, who calls the Saginaw River home, was
also up and down the river numerous times.
There were a few notable stories during 2016. Crews
from Dean Marine & Excavating worked out in the Saginaw Bay, west of the
Saginaw River Front Range, dredging the Kawkawlin River Entrance Channel. As mentioned earlier, neither the North Star
Dock in Essexville, nor the Bit-Mat dock in Bay City received any cargo
deliveries by water this season. Another
exciting story of note was the arrival of wind turbine components and blades,
brought in to the Port Fisher Dock in Bay City, by foreign flagged cargo
ships. Port Fisher also received turbine
components and blades by rail as well. Finally,
the tall ship festival returned to the Saginaw River in 2016, with the
following vessels taking part: Pride of Baltimore II, Denis Sullivan, US Brig
Niagara, El Galleon
Andalucía, Draken Harald Harfagre, Madeline, Mist of Avalon, Pathfinder, Playfair,
When and If, Appledore IV, and Appledore V.
The upcoming 2017 season will
hopefully be a safe and profitable one for everyone involved. As I write this,
ice is just now taking a firm hold on the Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay. Hopefully we will see all of our regular
vessels again during the upcoming season, as well as some new boats, or boats that
have not visited in some time. We will
also see if there is any maintenance dredging to be done on the Saginaw River
this season.
Here is wishing everyone a safe and
prosperous shipping season in 2017!
