Busy 2026 shipping season anticipated as St. Lawrence Seaway reopens

The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway has officially opened for the 2026 shipping season.

The seaway is a vital part of the North American supply chain and supports over $66 billion in economic activity in Canada along with over 350,000 jobs.

Last year the seaway was impacted by tariffs and economic uncertainty but officials are optimistic this year will surpass last year even with the high price of fuel.

The St. Lawrence Seaway connects six Canadian provinces and eight U.S. states through cargo for domestic and international trade.

“It’s one of the main thoroughfares and it allows the trade of goods from the heartland of Canada, from Thunder Bay all the way through to Montreal to the rest of the world,” said D’Arcy Wilson, the VP of Operations at the St. Lawrence Seaway. “We surpass just around 3,000 ships a year.”

This year is expected to be a busy one. The seaway said last year’s tariffs didn’t hit shipping too hard — where there was a loss, there were gains in other areas.

“Last year we had a bit of anxiety when we started, obviously with what was going on with the trade situation, but fortuitously that didn’t pan out,” said Wilson. “Some cargos were down, some cargos were up. This is normal for our type of business and unfortunately steel is down, but grain was up, so there’s a balance.”

READ MORE: Welland Canal opens for 2026 season with top hat tradition

Economist at McMaster University Colin Mang said this year will also be a good year for the seaway, because of Canada’s agriculture industry.

“So last year, even though there was a small decline in general cargo shipments because of American tariffs, that was more than made up for by an increase in grain transportation, ” said Mang. “This year we are projecting another increase in grain transportation because of another really good growing season.”

The Hamilton Oshawa Port Authority (HOPA) also says 2026 will be a positive year.

“We are certainly faced with lots of challenges, the uncertainty around the tariffs, the gas prices, which is a new anomaly that’s just hit us, but there is a lot of optimism and certainly the industry that we’re in are starting to respond to what Canada needs and looking very much at how do we diversify and open up new markets overseas and do we become Canada best customer,” said Ian Hamilton, the president and CEO of HOPA.

Because it was a cold snowy winter, the seaway also expects to do a lot of salt shipments over the coming months.

WATCH MORE: St. Lawrence Seaway opens 2026 shipping season with Top Hat Ceremony