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By MARGIE TRAX PAGE | Source: Ashtabula Star Beacon (Astabula, OH)

GENEVA — A tale of maritime disaster and ultimate survival is the story of Dennis Hale’s life.

Hale’s near-death experience as the sole survivor of the 1966 sinking of the Daniel J. Morrell will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, November 29th at Geneva Public Library, located at 860 Sherman St.

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Hale survived the 38-hour ordeal in the icy waters of Lake Huron, in late November that year, to tell the tale of his incredible experience. Read the rest of this entry »

CLEVELAND—Shipments of coal on the Great Lakes slowed considerably in September. Loadings totaled 3.7 million net tons, a decrease of approximately 16 percent compared to both a year ago and the month’s 5-year average.

While such a significant drop is reflective of demand, the dredging crisis and low water levels were also a factor. Not even one coal cargo loaded on Lake Superior topped 65,000 tons, but the 1,000-foot-long U.S.-Flag Lakers in this trade have carried nearly 71,000 tons in a single trip when high water levels offset the lack of dredging.

A smaller U.S.-Flag Laker had to trim nearly 900 tons from its payload when moving coal from Lake Superior to a Canadian power plant on Lake Erie.

For the year, the Lakes coal trade stands at 27.3 million tons, a decrease of 8 percent compared to the same point in 2006. Compared to the 5-year average, shipments are more than 6 percent off the pace.

SANDUSKY, Ohio — Coast Guard Station Marblehead medically evacuated a 54-year-old crewman from the motor vessel David Z today approximately five nautical miles offshore of Sandusky.A 47-foot motor lifeboat (MLB) crew transported the man, who went into cadiac arrest, to Emergency Medical Services at the station dock shoreside.

The captain of the 635-foot laker notified Station Marblehead on channel 16, the international distress signal monitored 24 hours, seven days a week via marine band radio.

The condition of the man is currently unknown.

By Telis Demos | Fortune/CNN Money

Now Minnesota’s mines are in demand. “Every single plant is going max, pedal to the metal,” says Dan Jordan of the state’s Iron Range Resources agency.

Production on the Mesabi Range — a two-mile-wide, 125-mile long vein of open-pit mines near Lake Superior — has increased by about 25% since 2001, supplying about two-thirds of U.S. iron-ore needs. (For more, see “The New Iron Age”) Mining revenues are up 30%, to $1.6 billion a year, and could double if planned new mines come online.

A flood of foreign capital has funded the renaissance. China’s Laiwu Steel and the Netherlands’ ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel company, bought mines from bankrupt U.S. firms in 2003 and 2005.

More recently, three small U.S. mining startups have raised capital on the London and Toronto stock exchanges to finance exploration for new copper and nickel mines in the Duluth Complex, a region neighboring the Mesabi, considered the world’s largest untapped source of those metals.

“Back in 2001, you couldn’t raise a dime out here,” says Franconia Minerals CEO Brian Gavin, who plans to open a Duluth mine by 2012.

Full story at FORTUNE/CNN Money >>

Lee Bloomquist | Source: Duluth News Tribune

Iron Range Steelworkers, whose labor contracts expire in nine months, already are bracing for the worst.

“A lot of people shot an extra deer this year, just in case,” said Mike Maleska, president of United Steelworkers Local 6860 at United Taconite in Eveleth and Forbes.

Labor agreements covering about 4,000 Iron Range Steelworkers expire Sept. 1, 2008.

With iron ore and steel companies reporting record revenues and demand for iron ore pellets remaining strong, negotiations are likely to be intense.

Full story at Duluth News Tribune >>

BY BILL DOLAN | Source: NWI Times

EAST CHICAGO | Lake County and city officials are prepared to give the world’s largest steel maker $16 million to settle a dispute over its share of the local tax burden dating back to the early 1990s.

“It’s a good deal,” Lake County Assessor Paul Karras said Tuesday of the proposed agreement with ArcelorMittal. Read the rest of this entry »

BOB VANDEVUSSE  | Source: Holland Sentinel

…soundings done by the Army Corps of Engineers showed a depth of only 17.5 feet outside the mouth of the Holland channel.

A sand bar about 200 feet wide has developed 100 to 150 feet off shore. Six weeks ago, vessels were reporting 20.5 feet of depth in that area. Math has never been my strong suit, but even I can figure out that the autumn storms have pushed an awful lot of sand around the bottom of the lake.

That may well mean that the shipping is done for the year in Holland. That is not good news for local shippers. We will have an update on the situation next week. Read the full story at the Holland Sentinel >>

Source: Port Clinton News Herald

HURON — Bowling Green State University Firelands Library is hosting an exhibit of books, journals and artifacts about the Great Lakes and its historical shipwrecks through the end of December.

The exhibit features a life ring from the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on loan from the Great Lakes Historical Society. The Fitzgerald was lost with everyone on board on Nov. 10, 1975. Read the rest of this entry »

Great Lakes Freighter has cleared the Blue Water Bridges in Port Huron and entered the St. Clair River. Tradition in Port Huron calls for a salute from the retired lightship Huron.

Ruthie Ackerman | Source: Forbes

Steel inventories at the end of October were at their lowest levels in nine years, according to data released on Thursday by the Chicago-based Metal Service Center Institute. Inventories decreased 27% from the same month last year to 12.3 million tons, the lowest level since March 1998, when inventories totaled 12.6 million tons.

Sam Halpert, a senior analyst at Van Eck Global, said that U.S. demand for steel is soft because of the sagging housing market and weakness in the automobile industry. But with inventory levels low and steel shipment levels rising only slightly, steel producers are likely to face higher demand and higher steel prices in early to mid 2008, Halpert said.

Read the full story at Forbes >>

Source: The Daily News

MILWAUKEE - A lighthouse and keeper’s quarters on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan was rededicated Friday after being restored to its condition of almost a century ago, when it provided an important navigational aid to Great Lakes ships.

Work on the 74-foot tower of the North Point Light Station was finished in early 2006. The restoration of the adjacent two-story house that for years was home to lighthouse keepers and their families now has been completed.

… Plans call for using the keeper’s quarters as a museum for maritime exhibits, as well as housing offices and meeting rooms, and offering tours of the lighthouse.

The original lighthouse was built in 1855 and later moved because of erosion of the bluff. It was expanded in 1912 but eventually went out of use and was decommissioned in 1994 … Read more at The Daily News >>

Source: Word of Mouth

On Sunday November 18th 2007 there will be a public meeting for anyone interested in meeting with Oglebay Norton, the company that would like to bring the Limestone Facility to the Industrial Park on Lorain’s eastside. This is an open meeting and representatives from Oglebay Norton will be there.

The meeting begins at 2:00 pm in the Industrial Park at the new proposed site (back where the old dump was). Oglebay Norton would like to show the residents exactly where the plant will be located. At 2:30 the meeting will then move to the Knights of St. John, 1620 Kansas Ave, for a video presentation and a question and answer period.

This is a wonderful opportunity to ask questions and to voice concerns. If you have any questions, please contact Melanie Szabo, First Ward Council-Elect at 288-4054 or via email, melszabo@yahoo.com

Posted by Robert C. Burns and Chad D. Lerch | Source: The Muskegon Chronicle

A Great Lakes freighter was forced to turn back because of shallow water in the Muskegon harbor Tuesday afternoon, the third such shipping incident since midsummer.

But this time, it wasn’t one of the 1,000-foot super-freighters that have had trouble negotiating Muskegon’s outer harbor in recent months. It was the 630-foot Earl W, an aggregate hauler headed for the Mart Dock.

The Earl W was bringing in about 19,000 tons of limestone for Verplank Dock Co., said Nathan Gates, the company’s sales and logistics manager.

The ship’s captain, forewarned about the “shoaling” — or buildup of sand on the lake bottom — that has occurred between Muskegon’s outer pierheads, proceeded slowly and backed off at the first contact with the bottom, Gates said.

The ship proceeded across the lake to Manitowoc, Wis., and is expected to off-load several thousand tons before returning to Muskegon for a second try.

Full story at the Muskegon Chronicle >>

Source: WCAX

OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) - Senator Charles Schumer says the federal government needs to dredge an upstate port on the Great Lakes.

Schumer says the increasing shallowness of the Port of Oswego on Lake Ontario is threatening to scuttle shipping activity in the central New York community. Schumer is calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the silt from the bottom of the port.

Port officials say silt build-ups reduce the amount of cargo ships can carry into the port.

Full story at WCAX.COM >>

Source: Oilweek

TORONTO - An Algoma Central Corp. (TSX:ALC) subsidiary has signed a US$90-million deal for the construction of two more double-hulled petroleum product tankers, to be built in China and delivered in August 2010 and April 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

By JANELLE PACKER | Source: The Alpena News

According to Lafarge Public Affairs Manager Craig Ryan, Lafarge began a trial partnership with Dow AgroSciences in September to aid both companies in being more environmentally friendly.

“This is part of Lafarge’s commitment to the community to improve our environmental footprint,” Ryan said.

Lafarge is utilizing a product Dow deposits in landfills and incinerates to help reduce the emissions in the plant.

Full story at The Alpena News >>

HAMILTON, ON, Nov. 15 /CNW/ - The United Steelworkers (USW) announced Thursday that its ongoing campaign among employees of Arcelor-Mittal (formerly Dofasco) in Hamilton has recently moved into a more intense phase.

Employees are telling USW organizers that recent Arcelor-Mittal actions are angering many. They say layoffs, terminations and cost-cutting are being initiated unfairly and without true, independent input from employees. Many workers report concerns about their future.

“Arcelor-Mittal is one of the world’s most profitable steel companies, but the true test of any great company is in the way it treats its workers,” said Fraser.

Full story at CNW >>

By Gitte Laasby | Source: Post-Tribune

The nearly historic low water levels in Lake Michigan could soon hit consumers’ pocket books.

Water evaporation and lack of precipitation are causing trouble for shippers and power companies, who might pass on added expenses to consumers.

… At the moment, the Port of Indiana in Burns Harbor is more affected by market forces such as a weak U.S. dollar than by low lake levels, but shippers generally experience increased costs because they have to carry lighter loads.

“Lake levels certainly present a different equation in that you can’t fill the ships as high. Therefore, it takes more ships to bring in the same amount of cargo or it costs more,” said Jody Peacock, spokesperson for the Ports of Indiana. “You may not be able to make as much profits. Any time you add cost into the equation, the cost has to be passed down” to the consumer.

That also affects the steel industry. The Burns Harbor port handled $820 million worth of cargo in 2006.

Full story in the Post-Tribune >>

MARK CARDWELL | Source: The Gazette (Montreal)

Now up and running, the new company has landed contracts to build five ships worth more than $635 million during the next 30 months.

As of this week, roughly 425 skilled tradesmen - mostly steel workers such as platers and welders - have been recalled since and are now working on site.

Gagné expects that as many as 900 people will be on the job by next summer when simultaneous production on as many as four of the five ships on order will be under way.

Part of the first vessel - one of the three Vik-Sandvik class ships being built for a Norwegian company that services the North Sea oil industry - was laid down in one of the two massive drydocks on Oct. 29.

When it is finished next year, the vessel will become the 717th ship built at the Davie yard since 1825, joining a roster that includes sailing ships, steamships, tugs, destroyers and many of the biggest ocean- and Great Lake-going cargo ships built in Canada.

In addition to the three Cecon vessels, Davie will reconvert two cruise ships for Ocean Hotel, a Cyprus-based company.

Davie has also signed a memorandum of understanding with another Norwegian client to build two more ships for the North Sea oil fields.

Those 130-metre-long vessels would be worth another $190 million apiece and would be delivered in 2011.

If that deal goes through, it would represent more than $1 billion in orders.

“And it doesn’t end there,” Gagné said… Read more >>

Full story at The Gazette (Montreal) >>

By Eric Gaertner | Source: The Muskegon Chronicle

The stakeholders of the 14 pollution hot spots in the Great Lakes got a preview Friday of what could become a hot topic in the 2008 presidential race — preservation of the water supply, specifically in the Great Lakes.

Getting the word out to the public that keeping the lakes clean is vital to a healthy economy was the focus of an area workshop attended by government leaders, state officials and environmentalists.

The direct economic benefits of restoring the Great Lakes would amount to at least $50 billion nationally and regionally, according to a recent landmark study.

Full story at The Muskegon Chronicle >>