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A Canadian shipping company plans to start a short sea shipping service between Halifax and Montreal next month.
Aldert van Nieuwkoop, president of Great Lakes Feeder Lines, said the company expects to offer a weekly service between the two Canadian ports using a small 230-TEU ship that also has the capability to handle project cargo.
Van Nieuwkoop, who was director of market development for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. from 2003-2006, said the line will offer a weekly service connecting the two ports and may call Toronto or Hamilton on Lake Ontario, if there is market demand. If that was the case, then initially the service might have a 10-day frequency.
A short sea shipping industry veteran in Europe before moving to Canada in 2001, Van Nieuwkoop said he would like to add additional ships, and, if demand warrants, offer service further into the Great Lakes. Service to Montreal will be year-round, he said, but service to Great Lakes ports would be seasonal because the Seaway closes during the winter.
The service will initially use a 1988-built German-flag ship that was used by CMA CGM as a container feeder ship for CMA CGM in the Mediterranean. The ship has a stern ramp and two 35-ton cranes capable of dual lifts of 70 tons. The company expects to take delivery of the ship on April 8. It will undergo maintenance in a Barcelona shipyard and be reflagged as a Canadian ship to conform with cabotage laws.
Ships engaged in coastal U.S. trade must be U.S. built under the Jones Act. But Cabotage laws in Canada are not that restrictive, he said, but Burlington, Ontario-based Great Lakes Feeder Services will have to pay a hefty 25 percent import tariff on the value of the ship when it is moved from the German to Canadian registry.
Van Nieuwkoop said he has gotten interest from some of the big container carriers calling Halifax to use the service as a feeder to and from Montreal. He said transit times would be competitive with those offered by the CN railroad.
Source: American Shipper
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