Port of Thunder Bay

Today @ Port of Thunder Bay it’s time to put those knowledge skills to the test and expand your horizons with another Port PHD segment! ⚓ This time, we’re looking at Bollard Pull. As you may know, tugboats provide assistance to vessels entering and exiting the Port of Thunder Bay, whether that’s guidance with docking and undocking, towing, escort through narrow channels or challenging waterways, emergency response, and icebreaking. 🛥🚢 To accomplish all of the above, tugboats boast impressive engine capacities, which generate what is known as “bollard pull” - in other words, the amount of force required for a tug to hold a vessel stationary against external forces such as wind, current, or the resistance of water. Bollard pull is calculated by connecting a pier bollard - used to moor vessels to the port - with a towing mechanism on the tugboat and computing the force / tension developed in the connection between the two using a load cell powered electronic dynamometer. The resulting force is measured in kilonewtons (kN) or other units of force such as short tons (stf) or tonnes of force (tf). However, the calculation becomes more complex when taking into account friction, wave, wind, and hull resistance. In fact, everything from the temperature in a tug’s engine room to the cleanliness of its propeller blades can have an effect on the bollard pull reading. Determining a tugboat’s bollard pull gives operators and manufacturers a quantifiable value to work with to ensure safe and efficient ship assistance, keeping operations such as those at Port of Thunder Bay running as smooth as possible! 🏭

Today @ Port of Thunder Bay! 📸 After offloading the MV Onega Neva, our stevedoring partners at Logistec are hard at work strapping bundles of steel rail to flatcars for transport to Western Canada. This rail will be used to build key infrastructure needed to maintain and expand the supply chain, bolstering Canada’s agricultural sector and once again highlighting how the Port of Thunder Bay provides vital support to the West! 🛤

Port of Thunder Bay is pleased to announce that our team member, Edi Lopez, has been promoted to Director of Terminal & Harbour Operations effective this month! In the words of CEO Chris Heikkinen, “Edi brings credibility and practicality to the harbour services and terminal operations functions as a naval architect with significant industry experience. Well respected both within and outside the walls of our office, Edi has demonstrated skills in relationship building, business development, and project management that will enable his success in this role.” Please join us in sharing congratulations with Edi!

ECC is pleased to announce our panel highlight for the Ontario Marine Council Luncheon on October 15th. The Ontario Marine Council plays a pivotal role in ensuring a prosperous and environmentally responsible future for Ontario's marine industry through its initiatives and advocacy with the provincial government. Register today and join us for this timely event where we will honour the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, with the inaugural OMC Annual Ontario Marine Champion Award for his contributions to Ontario's marine industry. This presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with these prominent industry leaders. ----------- Tuesday, October 15th, 2024 11:45am - 1:30pm Hilton Toronto Hotel Register today: https://lnkd.in/gsA2bAef #economicclubofcanada #ontariomarinecouncil #maritime #industry #marine #economy #dougford

Today, we honour the children who never returned home and survivors of the residential school system. Today, we encourage everyone to participate in learning more about the history and experiences of Indigenous and First Nations’ peoples. This is a time to reflect upon and listen to the stories of Indigenous and First Nations community members - to engage in thoughtful dialogue and foster a sense of understanding, compassion, and respect. You can also get involved by attending a local event - such as the Honouring Our Children Run at Boulevard Lake - volunteering your time or donating to Indigenous-led organizations and foundations which directly support First Nations communities. Let us join and work towards a bright future of justice, equity, and empowerment for all Canadians. 🍁

With August well behind us and pumpkin spice now in the air, we can take a moment to reflect on our monthly cargo statistics. 📊 🌾 Grain Shipments: Despite exporting slightly less grain this August, we’re still 415,000 MT ahead of last year on the whole. A solid reminder that the Port of Thunder Bay is the number one grain export port on the seaway.   📈 Potash Exports: Potash is still trending upwards with nearly 160,000 MT more in our year-to-date total - that’s an increase of 18%! 🚢 Keefer Terminal: August saw over 42,000 MT of phosphate fertilizer shipments, contributing to a strong overall performance and the continued support of agricultural operations across Western Canada. 🛳️ Cruise Season: In August, things slowed down a bit in terms of cruise ship sightings with just one - the Viking Octantis - making a stop at Keefer Terminal. 🔝 Total Cargo: We've well-crossed the 5,000,000 MT mark in total cargo throughput, carrying us strongly into the Fall season. Our total port tonnage is now 590,970 MT ahead of last year! Thank you, as always, to our dedicated team and partners for making all fo this possible. Here's to ongoing success and growth! 🌟 Stay tuned next month for our September wrap-up.

For this “Resource Spotlight,” we’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the unloading process when it comes to phosphate fertilizer. 🏗 This fertilizer - imported from Morocco - plays a crucial role in the development of agricultural land across Western Canada, ensuring crops obtain all the nutrients they need for a healthy yield. In fact, up to 90 per cent of the world’s phosphate is used as a soil nutrient for plant growth. 🌾 Phosphate rock, or “phos-rock,” is ore that contains phosphorus. It is located at various depths, and extraction typically requires large dragline buckets, which scoop up the material for refinement. The phos-rock is then beneficiated, or refined, with small phosphate pebbles being left behind. The phosphate fertilizer you see in this video is unloaded into Shed 1, where it is stored until it can be transported via railcar to the West - once again exemplifying Port of Thunder Bay’s critical role in the resource chain.  🛤

Dunnage is incredibly important in the shipping process - especially if you like receiving your goods intact! 🎁 This term, which first gained traction in the English language around 1497 according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is used to describe durable padding material that protects items during shipping, safeguarding against moisture and acting as a shock absorber to prevent physical damage. Typically, the more fragile an item, the more dunnage it needs. On vessels with much smaller cargo one shouldn’t be surprised to find dunnage such as bubble wrap, kraft paper, plastic bracing and fillers. On much larger vessels, however - such as those we often see here at the Port of Thunder Bay - dunnage might look more like wooden planks, blocks, boards, and even steel racks. Dunnage in these ships also serves as a way to segregate cargo in the hold and prevent shifting in response to ship motions. Dunnage may also be customized to fit any range of items being shipped! An interesting fact about wooden dunnage is that special regulations are in-place here in Canada which require any wooden dunnage to be dealt with securely after unloading - primarily to protect our delicate ecosystems and avoid the introduction of invasive species. It’s a regulation we and our partners are very familiar with at Port of Thunder Bay as part of our continued commitment to environmental safety. 🍃

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came out to the CenCan Expo and visited us at our booth. It was a wonderful opportunity to share what we do here at Port of Thunder Bay, discuss prospective partnerships, and hone in on the importance of mining in the region. More than that, we simply had some great conversations. ✨ A special shout out to the winner of our $100 Daytona’s giftcard, Nicky - and to St. John’s Ambulance for winning our local, Port-themed gift basket! We hope you enjoy and get the most out of those goodies. Finally, thank you to the CenCan Expo organizers and on-site team who made the whole event a welcoming and seamless experience. We will see you next year! 🤩

Port of Thunder Bay looks forward to greeting new and familiar faces at the CenCan Expo today (Sept. 11) from 10am-5pm, and tomorrow (Sept. 12) from 9am-3pm - we hope to see you there! 🤩 Come visit us at our booth where you’ll get a chance to meet our team members, Austin Campbell and Sam Mohammadi, find out more about our operations here at the Port, and enter your name in our draw to win a $100 giftcard to Daytona’s Kitchen Creative Catering or a gift basket full of local goodies! 🎁🧺