Saginaw River Sunday - Best of July 2021

 Here are some of my favorite shots from the month of July 2021:

Saginaw River Sunday - Best of June 2021

Saginaw River Sunday! Continuing on with my favorite shots from 2021, here are my choices from June 2021 for this 3th installment.

Saginaw River Sunday - Best of May 2021

Another Saginaw River Sunday, continuing with the "best of for 2021". Here are my best of May 2021 for this second installment. It was an interesting month with the Melissa coming in to unload underwater cable onto the cable laying barge, Kokosing 1. It was also the month I got my DJI Air2s drone and starting getting aerial shots! 

Year End Report - Saginaw River 2021

Another shipping season is in the books for the Saginaw River, and while the numbers trended lower than in the previous season, there were still some positives, some first time visitors, and a little excitement along the way to make things interesting. For the first time in four years, vessel traffic numbers decreased from the year prior. The number of commercial vessel passages for 2021 were the lowest they have been since the 2018 season, falling below the 200 mark that we had surpassed in 2020, for the first time since 2008. A portion of this drop off can be contributed to over twenty fewer wind turbine component deliveries coming into the Saginaw River this season. The balance of the decrease falls back on fewer deliveries for the aggregate and cement markets. I think it is important to note that in 2021, we were still experiencing the effects of a global pandemic, supply chain issues, and workforce shortages. I mentioned the following last year, but it is worth mentioning again: Much hard work continues to be put in by our industry leaders, not only here on the Saginaw River locally, but across the entire Great Lakes region, working improve infrastructure and product diversity. This allows for more opportunities to utilize maritime assets to move product, cheaper and more efficiently than other modes of transportation. Now, more than ever, this is especially important as traditional high volume cargo such as coal and taconite are under pressure. Many coal fired, electric power generating plants have ceased operation or are scheduled to close in the next few years. The Saginaw River is a prime example of this, as Consumers Energy’s J.C. Weadock plant was retired in 2016 and then torn down in 2020. Additionally, the other Consumers Energy power plant on the Saginaw River, the Dan E. Karn plant, is scheduled to have its remaining coal fired units shut down in 2023, ending coal deliveries here, as the industry continues is movement to renewable energy sources. It is still my hope that the work being put in now by these leaders in Great Lakes Shipping will lead to better things to come in the future. The following is a look back on the 2021 commercial shipping season here on the Saginaw River, utilizing the information and data I have collected during this time period.

The 2021 season officially started on April 7th, with the arrival of the Interlake Steamship Company vessel, Herbert C. Jackson, delivering a split cargo to the Wirt Stone Docks in Bay City and Saginaw. The season ended when the tug Samuel de Champlain and cement barge Innovation, arrived on January 1, 2022 to unload a cargo of powdered cement at the Lafarge Cement Dock in Essexville. The 2021 season on the Saginaw River lasted for a total of 269 days, 28 days fewer than in 2020. The start of the 2021 season was 20 days later than in 2020, with the end of the season seven days earlier than in 2020.

For the 2021 commercial shipping season, there were a grand total of 161 commercial vessel passages on the Saginaw River, representing a decrease of 42 fewer passages than the 2020 season. These passages were made by 31 different vessels, representing 14 different vessel management companies. These numbers are both decreases, as there were 46 different vessels and 18 companies represented in 2020.

Looking at other numbers from the 2021 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 store cargo, fertilizer is also delivered to the dock 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 cargo items such as wind turbine components or underwater cable, and tug/barge units or tankers can deliver liquid cargo such as calcium chloride or liquid fertilizer. With this in mind, these were the same 17 facilities that had received cargo in 2020. The individual dock seeing the most vessel traffic in 2021 was the Port Fisher/Bay Aggregates Dock in Bay City, with 37 vessel deliveries. This is six fewer than recorded during the previous season. In second and third place respectively were the Wirt Stone Dock in Bay City with 24 deliveries and the Wirt Stone Dock in Saginaw with 23 deliveries. Rounding out the top five are the Lafarge Cement Dock in Essexville with 18 deliveries, and the Lafarge Stone Dock in Saginaw, with 15 deliveries. These top five docks accounted for 60% of the total commercial vessel deliveries in 2021. The two largest companies, Fisher and Wirt, each with multiple docks along the Saginaw River, accounted for a total of 57% of all commercial vessel deliveries. In all, accounting for split cargos by some vessels, which unloaded at two or more different docks during the same visit, there were 194 deliveries to the various docks along the Saginaw River. This is 53 fewer actual dock deliveries than during the 2020 season. The following table outlines the docks delivered to along with the number of vessels stopping there:

2021 - Saginaw River - Dock Deliveries

Port Fisher/Bay Aggregates Dock - Bay City 37

Wirt Stone Dock - Bay City 24

Wirt Stone Dock - Saginaw 23

Lafarge Cement Dock - Essexville 18

Lafarge Stone Dock - Saginaw 15

ACE - Saginaw Paving/Buena Vista Dock - Saginaw 11

Port Fisher Terminals Dock - Bay City - Liquid & Bulk 11

Sargent Dock - Zilwaukee 10

Consumers Energy Dock - Essexville 10

GM Dock - Saginaw 8

Burroughs North Dock - Essexville 7

Wirt Sand and Stone Dock - Essexville 6

Wirt Fertilizer Dock - Essexville 5

Bit-Mat Asphalt Dock - Bay City 4

Burroughs Materials Dock - Zilwaukee 4

U.S. Paving & Stone Materials Dock - Carrollton 1

Total Deliveries 194

The Rand Logistics, Inc./Grand River Navigation tug, Olive L. Moore, paired with the self-unloading barge Menominee, once again defended the title of “Queen of the Saginaw River”, again making more trips to the river in 2021 than any other vessel. The pair logged 24 visits this season, 19 fewer than in 2020, as the pair did not visit the Saginaw River after August 7th. This tightened up the race for the most visits, shrinking the 30 trip lead they held in 2020, down to 8 trips for 2021. In second place was Interlake Steamship Company’s, Herbert C. Jackson, who had 16. The Olive L. Moore - Menominee has now been the workhorse of the Saginaw River 15 of the past 16 years. Rounding out the top five most frequent vessels are Rand/Grand River’s Sam Laud with 13, Interlake’s Paul R. Tregurtha with 9, and LafargeHolcim/Andrie tug Samuel de Champlain and her cement barge Innovation with 8 visits.

The company leading the way with the most cargo deliveries to the Saginaw River during the 2021 season was far and away Rand Logistics, Inc. Their subsidiaries, Lower Lakes Towing and Grand River Navigation tallied 72 vessel passages, an increase of 2 deliveries over 2020 and accounting for 37% of all deliveries in 2021. They have now been leading the way on the Saginaw River for 14 of the past 15 years. The Interlake Steamship Company logged the second most visits with 21 trips, down a total of six from 2020. Coming in third place was the Algoma Central Corporation with 13 deliveries to the Saginaw River, down 8 trips from the 2020 season. These three companies accounted for 55% of all deliveries on the Saginaw River in 2021. Rounding out the top five companies were LafargeHolcim/Andrie with 11 trips and Inland Lakes Management Inc. with 7.

Cuyahoga passing American Mariner at the Burroughs North Dock in Essexville, July 5, 2021

There were a number vessels that were visitors to the Saginaw River in 2020 that did not make a return visit here in 2021. Among those vessels was a Saginaw River favorite, Mississagi, sadly being retired from service at the end of the 2020 season. Others were American Courage, Robert S. Pierson, and 19 different salt water vessels that had delivered wind turbine components here during the 2020 season: BBC vessels Volga, Gdansk, Mont Blanc, Rushmore, Switzerland, Greenland, Edge, Song, Vesuvius, Peru, Brazil, and Eagle. Other salties not returning were Spiekeroog, Azoresborg, Caroline, Amoenitas, Hilke, Timgad, and Zea Servant.

There were a number of first ever visits to the Saginaw River in 2021, those being Interlake Steamship’s 1000 footer, James R. Barker, Algoma Central’s Algoma Intrepid, and saltwater vessels Melissa and BBC Oregon. Other old friends back on the river in 2021 were Algoma Compass, who had made many trips here in the past under the name Adam E. Cornelius, Sam Laud, Michipicoten, and saltwater vessel Minervagracht

Some notable stories from the 2021 season:

- While wind energy was a considerable theme relating to cargo delivered to the Saginaw River in 2020, in 2021 this cargo evaporated. With 21 deliveries the previous season, only two were delivered in 2021.

- One of the biggest stories of 2021 was the sale of American Steamship Company vessels to Rand Logistics, Inc. Popular American Steamship vessels, American Courage, American Mariner, H. Lee White, John J. Boland, and Sam Laud sailed during the 2021 season sporting the Grand River Navigation stack colors. It is not known at this time if or when the vessels will receive the grey paint scheme of their fleet mates or if or when they will be renamed. The 1000 footers obtained in the sale from ASC to Rand remained in ASC stack colors and operated under the American Steamship Company subsidiary name.

- It was announced that the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan built Ojibway, would be retired at the end of the 2021 season. The Rand Logistics/Lower Lakes Towing vessel, Ojibway, was built on the banks of the Saginaw River and launched in 1952 as the Charles L. Hutchinson, sailing for Pioneer Steamship Company. Over her career, she has also sailed for the Ford Motor Company Fleet as the Ernest R. Breech, for the Kinsman Fleet as the Kinsman Independent, and for Voyageur Marine as Voyageur Independent, before going to Rand/Lower Lakes as Ojibway. It will be a sad day when this Defoe/Bay City classic is no longer sailing the Great Lakes.

- 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 announced 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 by late 2023 or early 2024.

- Maintenance dredging was scheduled to take place for the Saginaw River Entrance channel out on the inner Saginaw Bay late in 2021, but freezing temperatures and ice has stopped that from taking place. Luetdke Engineering has tugs and dredging equipment staged here for the job, tied up at the Port Fisher Terminals Dock.

- On May 11th, the saltwater vessel, Melissa, arrived on the Saginaw River with a cargo of underwater cable. Over the course of a few weeks, this cable was carefully offloaded onto the cable laying barge Kokosing 1, then taken by the tug Valerie B., up to the Straits of Mackinac for a project to replace damaged underwater cable there.

- Some other vessels visiting the Saginaw River in 2021 were the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Hollyhock, handling aids to navigation work for the Saginaw River Entrance Channel out in Saginaw Bay. Michigan Department of Natural Resources research vessels Tanner and Channel Cat also made appearances on the Saginaw River. U.S Fish and Wildlife Service vessel, Spencer F. Baird, was a visitor, as well as U.S.E.P.A vessel Mudpuppy II. A number of tugs were also active on the Saginaw River in 2021, including Manitou, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Kurt Luedtke, and Paul Luedtke.

Saginaw River Passage - January 10th

Crews from Poseidon Barge, Ltd. were working to move a crane barge up the Saginaw River to the Liberty Bridge in Bay City this afternoon, but were meeting with difficulty due to the ice conditions. I shot these photos and video between 1:30 and 2pm this afternoon at the Lake State Railway Bridge in Essexville. The equipment is for a bridge rehabilitation project underway for Liberty Bridge.

Saginaw River Passages - December 2021

There were a total of 7 commercial vessel passages on the Saginaw River for the month of December, with 7 different docks receiving 8 separate deliveries of product, accounting for split cargos delivered to multiple docks.  This represents three fewer passages than in December 2020, and is less than all of the long term averages with the 5-year average of 9 passages, the 10-year average of 8, and the 15-year average of 8 passages.

For the total number of commercial vessel passages for the year-to-date, the number is 160.  This number represents a decrease of 42 passages based on the total from last year at this point.  Looking at the averages, it is a decrease compared to the 5-year average of 164 passages, but an increase over the 10-year average of 145, and the 15-year average of 157 passages.

The number of deliveries and docks receiving cargo were:

2 - Lafarge Cement Dock - Essexville

1 - Port Fisher Terminals Dock – Bay City

1 - Wirt Stone Dock - Saginaw

1 - Wirt Stone Dock - Bay City

1 - GM Stone Dock - Saginaw

1 - Sargent Dock - Zilwaukee

1 - Wirt Sand and Stone Fertilizer Dock - Essexville

Saginaw River Passage - January 1, 2022

Samuel de Champlain – Innovation arrived on the Saginaw River New Year’s Day morning, becoming the first vessel of 2022 to call here.  The pair traveled up to the Lafarge Cement Dock in Essexville.  This is also the first commercial delivery to the Saginaw River since December 14th, when Calumet called on the Sargent Dock in Zilwaukee.