THUNDER BAY — Many cargo ships can be seen on the lake as they wait their turn to load cargo now that rail shipments have returned.
Officially back on the clock as of Monday, the short stoppage of shipping products like potash and grain will have some effect on moving things out of Thunder Bay.
Chris Heikkinen, CEO of the Port of Thunder Bay, said to expect a small backup of ships for a little while.
"I would estimate that we're probably looking at days to maybe a couple of weeks just to get back fully to where we would expect to be had the rail stoppage not occurred."
Heikkinen added that while the port did see impacts, he wouldn't call them significant.
"Fortunately, the stoppage was short enough that I don't think we had a significant impact in terms of losing full shipments or anything like that.
"But, every day that you're down, it costs shippers more because they're chartering vessels, and the vessels are sitting idle when maybe otherwise they would have been loading a vessel.
"So it's certainly impactful."
