IMMEDIATE RELEASE            March 20, 2003

With the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., opening to vessel traffic March 25, the Port of Duluth-Superior’s first shipping activity is scheduled to begin next week.

Early-season vessel traffic is expected to face severe ice conditions, with areas measuring over 28 inches thick reported in several locations throughout the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River system.
Lake Superior has the most ice since 1997 and is the closest to freezing over since ice covered the lake in 1994, according to the National Ice Center in Washington, D.C. Ice Center records show that the lake also froze over in 1978 and 1972, but a string of mild winters from 2000 through 2002 kept the lake mostly ice-free.

The U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw is scheduled to arrive tonight (March 20) to assist the Cutter Sundew with establishing tracks in this harbor.

The Mackinaw is scheduled to depart early March 23 for Two Harbors, followed by four Great Lakes Fleet, Inc., vessels that wintered in Port and are traveling to the same destination.

The Edgar B. Speer will depart later that day (March 23), followed by the Roger Blough and Edwin H. Gott. The Presque Isle will depart the next day (March 24). A tentative departure schedule for the remaining 11 vessels wintering in Port is attached.

In Two Harbors the four Fleet vessels are scheduled to consecutively load 45,000 to 47,000 metric tons each of iron ore pellets destined for Gary, Ind. The Presque Isle is already carrying 27,000 metric tons of iron ore loaded at the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railway taconite facility prior to her winter berthing.

On March 24 the Mackinaw will lead a convoy of the four vessels to the Soo Locks, then on to Gary.

Last year’s first shipping activity occurred March 21 with Interlake Steamship Company’s Paul R. Tregurtha leaving Superior’s Midwest Energy Resources coal facility with an intra-lake load for Marquette, Mich.

A first arrival ceremony will be held when this Great Lakes navigation season officially begins with the Port’s first inbound ship from the Soo Locks. The first Soo transit arrival last year occurred March 26 with the arrival of Interlake Steamship Company’s Mesabi Miner at Superior’s Midwest Energy Resources Co.

A welcoming ceremony will also be held for the Port’s first 2003 oceangoing vessel arrival. U.S. and Canadian Seaway officials delayed the opening of the Welland Canal and Montreal-Lake Ontario sections of the system from March 25 until March 31 due to the harsh ice conditions.

The April 2 arrival of the Norwegian-flagged Menominee at the Duluth’s CPMT marked last year’s first full Seaway transit and overseas arrival. Oceangoing vessel arrivals for the past five years have been between April 2 and April 8.

- 30 -

More Press Releases, 2003