Saginaw River - Shipping Season Report – 2018
For the second consecutive year,
commercial shipping numbers have continued to climb on the Saginaw River,
rebounding in 2018 to the highest number of vessel passages since the 2010 season. After recording record low numbers during the
2014 & 2016 seasons, increases in the past two years have now led to an
optimistic outlook that the worst could now hopefully be behind us. The companies doing business along the banks
of the Saginaw River are always looking for ways to diversify and introduce new
cargo to be moved by boat, as well as continually working for improvements to
the system, be it dredging to a deeper channel depth or making improvements at
their docks. Hopefully the hard work being
done now, will pay off in the years to come.
The following is a look back at what took place along the banks of the
Saginaw River during the 2018 shipping season:
The 2018 shipping season officially
started on March 29th, with the arrival of the tug Spartan and her tank barge, Spartan
II. The pair called on the Port Fisher
Dock in Bay City to start the season one day earlier than the 2017 season opener. Spartan/Spartan II also opened the season in
2017. The 2018 season came to a close on
a very foggy, but mild January 5th, when the tug Sharon M I and her
barge, called on the Port Fisher/Bay Aggregates Dock, in Bay City, with the
last inbound cargo of the season. This was 13 days later than the 2017 close, for
a season lasting 283 days, 15 days longer than last year. For 2018, there were a total of 143 commercial
vessel passages. That is 10 more than
the previous season. These passages were
made by 30 different vessels, representing fourteen different companies. This is a decrease of one unique vessel, but an
increase of one more company, as compared to the 2017 numbers.
Looking at some of the other
statistics from the 2018 season, cargos were delivered to 17 individual docks
this season. This number is an increase from last year. One of the increases was the Bit-Mat liquid
asphalt dock in Bay City. They received
product by tank barge this season for the first time since 2014. The dock seeing the most traffic in 2018 was
the Port Fisher/Bay Aggregates Dock in Bay City, seeing 38 vessel deliveries. This was four more deliveries than during the
2017 season. Coming in second was the
Lafarge Cement Dock in Essexville, with 24 cargo deliveries. This was a huge
increase of 11 trips, almost double that of the previous season. In third place was the Wirt Stone Dock in
Saginaw, with 21 cargo deliveries, and closely followed by the Consumers Energy
Dock in Essexville, with 20 cargos delivered. These four docks accounted for 62%
of all vessel deliveries to the Saginaw River in 2018. The “big two” companies, who own multiple docks
along the Saginaw River, Fisher Companies and Wirt, accounted for 54% of all
cargo delivered this season. In all,
accounting for split cargos by some vessels, which unloaded at two or more different
docks on the same visit, there were 167 deliveries to the various docks along
the Saginaw River. This is 8 more actual
dock deliveries than during the 2017 season.
For the first time in twelve
seasons, there is a new queen of the Saginaw River! For the past eleven years, the tug Olive L.
Moore, paired with the self-unloading barge Menominee, have made the most trips
to the Saginaw River each season. This
year however, logging 25 visits, the Interlake Steamship Company tug Dorothy
Ann and her self-unloading barge, Pathfinder, took the crown, beating the Olive
L. Moore/Menominee by 5 trips. The
vessels following these two workhorse tug/barge combos, rounding out the top
five with the most trips to the Saginaw River are two more tug/barge combos
from Andrie/Lafarge: Samuel de
Champlain/Innovation with 9 and G.L. Ostrander/Integrity with 8. The traditional self-unloading laker from
American Steamship Company, John J. Boland, came in next, also with 8 visits.
There is another change at the top this
season. The company leading the way with
the most cargo deliveries to the Saginaw River in 2018 was the American Steamship
Company with 35 trips, accounting for 24% of all deliveries. Lower Lakes Towing/Grand River Navigation,
leaders for the past 11 years, logged the second most visits, with 34, just
missing out on the top spot. The changes
were very small as American Steamship logged the same number of cargos to the
Saginaw River as in 2017, but Lower Lakes dropped by two. The third busiest fleet in 2018 was the
Interlake Steamship Company with 28 passages, representing an increase of two
trips over last season. These three
companies accounted for 68% of all deliveries on the Saginaw River in 2018.
There were a number of vessels that
were visitors to the Saginaw River in 2017, that did not make a delivery here
in 2018, with those vessels being: Algoway, Great Republic, Manitoulin,
Michipicoton, HR Constellation, and the BBC vessels Alberta, Campana, Elbe, and
Volga. The list of boats that were not visitors
in 2017, but visited the Saginaw River in 2018 were: Algoma Innovator, Algoma Buffalo, Mississagi,
Saginaw, Joseph H. Thompson, Jr./Joseph H. Thompson, BBC Europe, Florijngracht,
and the tug Rebecca Lynn/A397. Algoma
Innovator made her first ever trips to the Saginaw River, one of Algoma
Central’s new “Equinox” class vessels, the Innovator replaced the retired
Algoway on trips here. Buffalo, a
Saginaw River fixture for many years, made her first trip under her new name,
Algoma Buffalo, and new owners. It was
good to see Saginaw back on her namesake river.
The BBC Europe and Florijngracht also made their first ever visits to
the Saginaw River.
There were a few other notable stories during the 2018 season. After
no dredging being done during the 2017 season, maintenance dredging resumed on
the Saginaw River, beginning in the late spring. Ryba Marine Construction, out of Cheboygan
Michigan won the contract for the dredging, bringing their tug, Thomas R.
Morrish and numerous pieces of dredging equipment to the river. The workhorse Malcolm Marine tug, Manitou,
also made numerous trips from her St. Clair, Michigan home to the Saginaw River,
arriving to assist the BBC Europe at the Port Fisher dock and towing dredging
equipment for Ryba Marine to and from the Saginaw River. The Port Fisher Dock in Bay City again
received wind turbine components at its facility, but this season, the majority
were delivered there by truck. The
presence of foreign flagged cargo ships continued on the Saginaw River however,
as the BBC Europe and Florijngracht did deliver cargo to Port Fisher in 2018. Sadly, this was the first season in many
decades that one of the familiar Collingwood Shipyard built, Algoma Central
boats, Algorail, Algoway, and Agawa Canyon did not visit the Saginaw River,
with all now being retired from service.
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