Canada's Algoma Central Corporation has ordered four new dry bulk lake freighters from Nantong Mingde Heavy Industries, a shipyard located in the Yangtze Delta area of China. The contract includes options for two additional vessels.

Algoma Central expects to invest $205 million in the project.

The ships will be maximum St. Lawrence Seaway size. One will be a gearless bulk freighter and three will be self-unloading bulk freighters. The first is expected to enter service in 2013 with the remaining ships to follow through mid-2014.

The vessels will be chartered to Seaway Marine Transport, which will deploy them in its dry bulk trade on the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Waterway. These new vessels will replace existing ones that are approaching the end of their economic lives.

Seaway Marine Transport, a partnership with Upper Lakes Group, Inc., is the largest operator of dry-bulk vessels on the waterway.

December 21, 2010

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