Canada’s Great Lakes fleet is being rejuvenated with the addition of a number of new bulk carriers ordered by Canada Steamship Lines (CSL), Algoma Central and Fednav. The orders were motivated by the removal of a 25 per cent import duty on new ships in 2010, as well as a rise in the value of the Canadian dollar and a collapse in world shipbuilding prices.
At the start of the year the first of CSL’s new Trillium ships, the 37,690dwt self-unloading bulker Baie St Paul (pictured), arrived on the lakes and has since been followed by the similar-sized Whitefish Bay. The Canadian company has another four ships under construction in China. At the same time, competitor Algoma Central is having four gearless bulk carriers and four self-unloading bulkers built by the Nantong Mingde Heavy Industries yard in China, with two of the gearless ships to be operated by Algoma. JS
