The vast majority of U.S.-Flag lakers are too big to transit the Welland Canal or locks in the St. Lawrence River, but that does not mean LCA is uninterested in the Seaway. The American steel industry has made significant investments in iron ore mines in Eastern Canada. Export grain as a backhaul cargo is key to attracting salt water vessels to the Lakes and sustaining the jobs they create for American longshoremen. As part of the Great Lakes shipping community, LCA supports efforts to make the St. Lawrence Seaway as efficient as possible, provided the steps taken do not disadvantage domestic waterborne commerce. The Seaway, however, remains in a state of flux.
Current thought seems to be moving more and more toward a bi-national agency.
In fact, Minnesota Congressman James L. Oberstar has introduced legislation to that effect. Oberstar's bill clearly differentiates between Great Lakes shipping and the Seaway trade, so LCA is amenable to discussing this initiative. Surely efficiencies would be achieved by combining resources and establishing one set of regulations to govern Seaway transits, but there are complex issues, sovereignty for one, to resolve, so we can expect a lengthy gestation period for the bi-national agency. She entered service in 1953 and for the next several decades supplied iron ore to steelmakers from Chicago to Buffalo and in-between. In 1997, Interlake Steamship made the decision to convert the veteran laker into its first self-unloading barge.