The St. Lawrence Seaway

Since its official opening in April of 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway has undoubtedly strongly contributed to the actual economic status of Canada's Heartland. Stretching from Montreal to Lake Superior, the system of locks and canals is by far Canada's principal maritime corridor. For a number of reasons including the continued increase of containerized cargo (most of which is intercepted at the Montreal port), ever-increasing competition between transport modes accompanying deregulation and trade liberalization and, more importantly, the fact that maritime transportation remains the least expensive mode per tons shipped, the seaway corroborates its function as primarily a bulk cargo transit corridor. Some key facts and figures on the St. Lawrence Seaway activities as Canada's top maritime transport corridor:

• 90% of transported cargo along the seaway is of bulk nature.
• Grain is the leading type of cargo transported in terms of tonnage. It accounts for 40% of all cargo.
• Iron ore comes in second with nearly a third of total cargo handled. Flows of ore are mainly downbound destined to major steel production mills of the Great Lakes.
• At the top of the port hierarchy in terms of tonnage are Sept-�les/Pointe-Noire, Port Cartier, and Montreal.
• The Seaway cost some US$470 million and was co-financed by Canada and the US, the former providing 72% of original project costs.