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Source: Business North

The Port of Duluth-Superior, which has been emerging as a key link in the wind energy supply chain worldwide, marks another milestone this week as the Dutch-flagged cargo ship Flinterland, loaded with 54 wind turbine blades manufactured here in North America, heads to the port of Suape, Brazil.

Those 54 blades were trucked to Duluth earlier this summer, where crews from Lake Superior Warehousing assembled the blades into stackable transport frames. “They do great work up there (in Duluth),” says Susan St. Germain, Director of Projects at TransGroup. “Because of LSW’s expertise and willingness to assemble those frames onsite, we were able to put two, 37-meter blades on each truck from the factory…which saved money and cut our carbon footprint in half…”

Read the full story, details & quotes at Business North >>

GLSW Exclusive

U.S. Shipping Partners L.P. (USS), a long-haul marine transport company specializing in refined petroleum products, took delivery of a second Articulated Tug-Barge over the weekend.

The Petrochem Producer was built by Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

ATB Galveston/Petrochem Producer at Bay Shipbuilding, August 22, 2008

The ATB’s tug, Galveston, was built by Eastern Shipbuilding of Florida, and delivered in July. The Galveston/Petrochem Producer underwent sea trials on Saturday before departing for delivery on the Gulf Coast.

Bay Shipbuilding is building two more of the ATB units. The third, under construction in the shipyard’s graving dock, is expected to be completed in November. The fourth is scheduled to deliver in August of 2009.

The Bay Shipbuilding-built ATBs will be run under charter to a major oil company. The Galveston/Petrochem Producer joins a fleet of ten other ATBs, product tankers and chemical parcel tankers.

Currently the Galveston/Petrochem Producer is downbound on the St. Lawrence Seaway, approaching Cornwall and Montreal. You can monitor the vessel’s transit on the St. Lawrence Seaway System website.

Related:

• USW At Arcelor Mittal In Weirton Will Take Strike Vote - WTRF
• Steel talks stall - NWI

BY ANDREA HOLECEK | Source: NWI

The United Steelworkers union is asking its 14,000 members at ArcelorMittal U.S. plants to give the union permission to authorize a strike against the company “if it becomes necessary.”

The strike authorization votes will be taken Wednesday at the 14 United Steelworkers locals representing ArcelorMittal’s hourly workers, according to a handbill being distributed today at ArcelorMittal’s domestic plants.

Read the full story, comments at NWI >>

We are closing comments on this entry so that all commentary is funneled to local outlets.

Source: Northland’s News Center

Recently concerns have surfaced that the 6 billion dollar project would not continue due to difficulty in finding a partner for financial support.

Jim Kowitz of Murphy Oil confirmed Monday, however, that the project is still on the drawing board.

Full story, photo at Northland’s News Center >>

Source: WLUC - TV 6

SAULT STE. MARIE — Funds for a new large lock at Sault Ste. Marie may be on their way, according to 1st District Congressman Bart Stupak.

Stupak tells TV6 that Congress has authorized the design of a second lock that would allow passage of large ships.  Currently, large ships can pass through only the Poe lock.

The entire project would cost an estimated $348 million, but Stupak says it would have to start with coffer dams which hold back the water during the construction of the lock.  The money for those dams has been secured at the subcommittee level in the U.S. House.

“We got about $17 million for coffer dams and now it’s going to the House floor,” explained Stupak.  “That number can move, but the point is, the first money to actually start the construction, if you do the coffer dams; the rest of the money will start flowing.”

The entire lock construction project would take about 10 years to complete.

by Tom Gilchrist | Source: The Bay City Times

Perhaps no one is closer to the E.M. Ford - believed to be the oldest Great Lakes freighter still afloat - than Tom Daleski.

Daleski, after all, lives on the 110-year-old vessel headed for the scrap yard this year or next. His father, James Daleski of Alpena, once served as captain of the boat sitting at the Lafarge North America cement plant in Saginaw County’s Carrollton Township.

“It’s one of a kind,” said Tom Daleski, 44, who resides aboard the cement hauler - which has sat for 12 years in the Saginaw River as a storage vessel for powdered cement.

“There’s not another one like this in the world; there just ain’t,” Daleski said. “The engine’s original, built in 1897.”

Someday soon, though, officials with Lafarge - the boat’s owner - say the boat will make its final voyage on the Great Lakes, on its way to a scrapyard.

“There’s a very good possibility the boat will go to scrap this year, and if not, it will for sure go to scrap in May of 2009,” said Mark Thomas, vessel operations manager at Lafarge North America’s office in Bingham Farms in Oakland County.

Read the rest of this entry »

by Bob VandeVusse | Source: Holland Sentinel

We had a surprise visitor this week when the Manitowoc arrived late Wednesday morning to deliver stone at the Verplank dock. They managed to squeeze the load on the west half of the dock, as a new dock face of steel sheet piling is being installed on the east end of the facility.

We heard through one of the Manitowoc’s crew members that they woud be returning to Holland with a load for Brewer’s, but they had not arrived by midday. They may be in today.

In the middle of the week, we expect to see the Maumee bring another load of coal to the James DeYoung power plant. The vessel is expected to load in Chicago early Wednesday morning. If that schedule holds, it should be here late Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning. Then over the long Labor Day holiday weekend, we should see another coal delivery on the Manistee.

Bob has more news on Great Lakes shipping at the Holland Sentinel >>

Source: Canadian Press

[T]he Conservative government has chosen to sink a $2.9 billion replacement program for HMCS Preserver and HMCS Protecteur, along with a $340 million companion proposal to buy 12 mid-shore patrol boats for the Canadian Coast Guard.

The decision was quietly announced late Friday night in a written statement by Public Works Minister Christian Paradis.

But foremost in the minds of naval officers is whether the two present ships, launched in 1968-69, are safe enough to continue at sea.

“If the Protecteur and Preserver are going to be needed longer than expected, we will also determine what needs to be done to keep our supply ships safe, operational and available until they can be replaced,” says the three-page note.

“Many of their systems are nearly obsolete, such as the boilers they use to generate steam for main propulsion. As you might expect, it’s becoming increasingly difficult and costly to maintain these ships. Spare parts are no longer readily available, Read the rest of this entry »

Web: Great Lakes Cruise Co. website

Susan Glaser | Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Two small, high-end cruise ships - one new, the other newly refurbished - will make their debut next summer on the fresh-water waves of lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior.

“It’ll be a great summer,” said Chris Conlin, owner of the Great Lakes Cruise Co., an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based travel agency that specializes in Great Lakes cruises. “We have lots of choices that we haven’t had before.”

The Clelia II, an all-suite ship with room for 100 passengers, will sail seven-day itineraries between Toronto and Duluth, Minn., starting in late June. Ports of call include Niagara Falls, Ontario (via the Welland Canal); Mackinac Island, Mich.; Houghton, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; and Thunder Bay, Ontario. All sailings will offer educational themes,

Read the rest of this entry »

ROBERT GIBBENS | Source: Montreal Gazette

The 182-year-old Davie shipyard at Lévis, opposite Quebec City, has hit a financial roadblock again under its latest owner, Teco Management ASA of Norway.

The ramp-up of production to meet orders for offshore oil-service supply vessels worth more than $600 million U.S. has proved more difficult than expected, productivity has lagged, and the cost of steel and other materials has soared.

Productivity has lagged mainly because of vessel construction complexities. Tight delivery times forced Davie to outsource component work to subcontractors, raising costs.

The result is Davie had negative working capital at June 30 and won’t have enough cash to fund operations through the rest of the year.

“Davie’s ability to continue as a going concern depends on raising additional financing and achieving profitability,” he added.

But Davie has a clear cost advantage over competing yards in Europe in building complex offshore supply vessels and drilling rigs once its operating problems are overcome, he said. The market for offshore service ships will be strong for many years.

Leadership changes, longer-term plans and specifics at the Montreal Gazette >>

John Myers | Source: Duluth News Tribune

Minnesota officials call it a dirty practice that’s fouling Lake Superior, but ships carrying coal and taconite likely will continue “sweeping’’ their waste cargo into the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Coast Guard is about to approve a new regulation giving Great Lakes freighters a permanent pass on dumping some 2 million pounds of bulk cargo residue overboard each year.

U.S. laws and an international treaty prohibit ships from dumping waste into the Great Lakes or within 12 miles of shore in the ocean. But Congress in 1993 approved a temporary exemption continuing the practice of sweeping excess taconite pellets, coal and limestone into the Great Lakes.

In 2004, after a series of temporary exemptions, Congress extended the sweepings exemption through Sept. 30, 2008, and ordered the Coast Guard to study the issue and come up with a permanent plan.

The agency is scrambling to get a regulation in place by that deadline. If a permanent rule isn’t in place by Sept. 30, the Coast Guard technically would be required to fine Great Lakes ships for dumping any material into the lake.

… Great Lakes ship crews for at least 70 years have been “sweeping’’ or washing leftover bulk material overboard to keep from contaminating future loads of other materials and to keep their decks and equipment clean.

Shipping companies say they can’t operate without sweeping their ships and that regulations to dispose of the materials on land would be too costly.

… Ship owners claim the amount of cargo washed overboard is harmless and just a small fraction of the 165 million tons of cargo shipped on the lakes each year.

“The amount of dry cargo residue being washed down is truly minute,’’ said James H.I. Weakley, president of the Cleveland-based Lake Carriers Association, in comments to the Coast Guard. The group represents 63 U.S. freighters.

Much more to this story on both sides, quotes and specifics at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Source: Duluth News Tribune

For sale: Prime waterfront property, centrally located with spectacular views of Lake Superior, Park Point, Canal Park and the Lift Bridge.

The catch? A list of restrictions and requirements — including agreeing to maintain the structure’s historic designation and allowing unrestricted government access.

The federal government is putting the light tower next to the Aerial Lift Bridge on Duluth’s south breakwater on the auction block Sept. 16.

…The federal government decided last year that it no longer needs the 107-year-old light… The government made the tower available at no cost to any qualifying government agency, nonprofit, school or community development organization willing to use it for educational, recreational or historic preservation purposes. But with no takers, the U.S. General Services Administration decided to put it on the auction block.

The structure, properly called the “Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Inner Light Tower,” will come with many strings. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a new owner must maintain the structure’s historic designation and conduct a photographic survey. The owner must get a lease from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before the property is transferred. The winning bidder must obtain written approval from the government before making any alterations or improvements to the property. And the Coast Guard would reserve an unrestricted right to enter the structure to service, replace or move the still-operating aids to navigation.

“Outside of that, it’s yours,” Ullenberg said.

Read the full story, photos and how to place a bid (you know you want it!) at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Peter Passi and Patrick Garmoe | Source: Duluth News Tribune

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s $10 billion plan to purchase Alpha Natural Resources could be in danger of falling apart, due largely to the activities of a hedge fund led by Chisholm native Phil Falcone.

Falcone manages Harbinger Capital Partners, a New York-based hedge fund known for playing an active role in forcing change upon the companies in which it invests.

The fund has publicly opposed the Alpha purchase, and Falcone has suggested shareholders might instead be better served by the outright sale of Cleveland-Cliffs to another company.

With a 15.6 percent stake in Cleveland-Cliffs, Harbinger is the company’s largest single shareholder. And it’s looking to buy up more stock.

Read the full story at the Duluth News Tribune >>

by Sue Clark | Source: Lighthouse News

The entrance at the base, however, remains open for a look inside, but no one can climb the tower of Michigan’s oldest lighthouse. It’s definitely not a case of the museum falling down on the job, though. The money is there in the form of a grant, waiting, unfortunately, for the GSA to get off its rear and transfer the lighthouse to the museum officially.

But it’s not totally the fault of the GSA. The Environmental Protection Agency is mostly at fault here.

Sue Clark boils it down to the bottom line at the Lighthouse News >>

Related: Severstal Sees Big Bucks In U.S. Coal - Forbes

By Dale Crofts and Maria Kolesnikova | Source: Bloomberg Canada

OAO Severstal, Russia’s biggest steelmaker, agreed to buy PBS Coals for $1.3 billion to supply it U.S. operations with coking coal.

Cherepovets, Russia-based Severstal said it will buy a combination of PBS and Penfold Capital Acquisition Corp. for C$8.30 ($7.93) a share, Severstal said today in a statement.

Severstal, led by billionaire Alexei Mordashov, follows steelmakers including ArcelorMittal and Posco in acquiring coal mines after a year in which steel and coal have doubled to record[ prices]. Demand for raw materials is surging as steelmakers boost production to satisfy greater usage in China and India.

… A steel shortage in the U.S. pushed prices to a record $1,052 a ton in June. Severstal spent $950 million this year on an ArcelorMittal plant near Baltimore and WCI Steel Inc., based in Ohio. The company also acquired steelmaker Esmark Inc. for about $672 million to sell a wider range of products.

The Russian steelmaker runs a mill in Dearborn, Michigan, that supplies Ford Motor Co., and the SeverCorr factory in Columbus, Mississippi.

More about OAO Severstal’s investments, positioning and industry notes at Bloomberg Canada >>

By Duane Ramsey | Source: Toledo Free Press

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, UT and Midwest Terminals Inc. and Melford entered into the strategic collaboration agreement in support of the development of a marine container trans-shipment terminal in the Port of Toledo.

The agreement does not guarantee Toledo will be the site of the container-shipping terminal on the Great Lakes, but the port remains in consideration for the facility as plans continue for Melford’s international terminal on the Strait of Canso in Nova Scotia.

“Toledo is one of several strategic ports for a container-shipping terminal and intermodal logistics park,” said Melford CEO Bob Stevens.

Read the full story, more quotes at the Toledo Free Press >>

James Rowen | Source: The Political Environment

Pretty quiet on the Murphy Oil expansion front in Superior; sources say the much-rumored $6 billion expansion to expand refining seven-fold at the Murphy Oil facility is on the back burner because tar sand extraction in Canada, the source of refinery’s crude stock, is still too expensive to bring a decent return to investors.

Sure, oil is still a hefty $120 a barrel, and was over $140 earlier this year, but it costs $1 a barrel to recover oil in Saudi Arabia and $75-$90-per-barrel in northern Alberta province, a CNN analyst points out.

Read the full piece at the Political Environment >>

Source: The Bay City Times

There are still a few days left to see the exhibit ”Great Lakes Titanics: Shipwrecks on the Inland Seas” at the Herbert D. Doan Midland County History Center.

Artifacts, photographs and information about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes will be featured, including that of the Edmund Fitzgerald, in which 29 men perished during a storm on Lake Superior in November of 1975. In addition, visitors can learn about diving and recent shipwreck dives and about the U.S. Life Saving Service, the forerunner of today’s Coast Guard.

The exhibit may be viewed through Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The History Center is at 3417 W. Main St. in Midland. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. For more information, call (800) 523-7649, (989) 631-8250, or log on to www.mcfta.org.

Monica Wolfson | Source: The Windsor Star

At issue is a rule U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to complete in November. Exporters will ber required to provide detailed information about every cargo container loaded on a ship bound for the U.S., including the location of the product on the boat, the buyer, seller, manufacturer and other records, 24 hours before the cargo is loaded on the ship.

The cargo container rule will enable customs to identify cargo to be inspected and help officials to spot a security threat before the ship leaves the foreign port.

CBP hasn’t got an implementation date yet, said Lynn Hollinger, spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

… While the new border rule may disrupt shipping, a product probably only crosses into the U.S. once by boat.

… short sea shipping on the Great Lakes will be affected.

Any cargo containers loaded in Canadian ports such as Sarnia and destined for a U.S. location such as Cleveland will have to comply with the cargo notification rule.

Much more to this story at the Windsor Star >>

Press release

The Navy’s newest ship, the future USS Freedom (LCS 1), will be commissioned Nov. 8 at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Milwaukee.

The commissioning date set by Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter, was announced by the commissioning committee Aug. 18 in Milwaukee.

“This is a huge milestone, another milestone in the life of USS Freedom,” said Cmdr. Michael Doran, prospective commanding officer of Freedom’s Gold Crew. “It was a mere 64 months ago that Freedom was… Read the rest of this entry »