Once headquartered in Sault Ste. Marie, Algoma Central Corporation is paying homage to its ancestral home port.
St. Catharines-based Algoma Central Corporation announced Feb. 5 that it has taken delivery of the Algoma Sault, the second seaway-max Equinox Class self-unloading bulk carrier from Yangzijiang Shipyard in China.
The vessel departed the shipyard on Feb. 3 and arrives on the Great Lakes in late March, just in time for the upcoming shipping season.
It’s the seventh Equinox Class vessel adding to company’s fleet of bulk carriers, self-unloaders, and tankers on the lakes. Five more vessels are on order. The ships have the latest in fuel efficiency technology.
“The addition of the Algoma Sault to our domestic fleet will further strengthen our position on the Great Lakes and we look forward to her arrival,” said Algoma president-CEO Ken Bloch Soerensen in a news release.
“The Algoma Sault is the second Equinox Class 740-foot self-unloader to be delivered and she will join her sister ship, the Algoma Niagara, in operations this spring.”
This is the company's third vessel named after the city. The last predecessor, the Algosoo, which entered service on the lakes in 1974, is being cut up for scrap in Port Colborne.
Algoma Central Corporation was incorporated in the Sault in 1899, initially as the Algoma Central Railway Company, a regional line that transported timber and iron ore to the steel mill at the Sault. A Great Lakes marine division began in 1900 with freight and passenger service.
During the 1970s, the corporation was its apex with holdings in trucking, helicopter and air expediting, and property, including the Station Mall in the Sault. Algoma Central now comprises four operating units of domestic dry-bulk, product tankers, ocean shipping, and real estate.
