CORNWALL – The Lake Ontario-Montréal section of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway will conclude its 2025 shipping season on at 12:01 a.m. January 5, 2026.
The Seaway opened its 67th navigation season on March 22 and will have been open for 290 days when it closes. Vessels looking to reach Montréal must be past Cape Vincent, NY by 6 a.m. on January 4, in order to clear the lock system in time for the closure. The Canadian Coast Guard is providing ice-breaking services in the South Shore Canal.
The early January closing date is tied for the second latest-ever scheduled closure of the shipping season for this section of the Seaway since it first opened in 1958. The 2024 season saw the shipping waterway close on January 10, 2025, a record 295 navigation days. An unscheduled extension of the season in 2018 saw the last ships clear the Seaway on January 12, 2018 — that was due to a ship being stuck in the ice upriver from the Eisenhower lock.
After a sharp increase in traffic on the waterway early in the 2025 season, progress has slowed. As of the end of November, total cargo shipped via the Seaway was up 0.9 per cent from 2024, or 303,000 tonnes. A 10.4 per cent increase in grain traffic from 2024 has mitigated losses in the General Cargo (28.5 per cent), Iron (3.7 per cent), and Coal (17.5 per cent) shipments. Dry and Liquid Bulk categories have helped offset those losses as well, with 5.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent gains respectively. Cargo changes are a result of improved Western Canadian grain shipments, and the impact of U.S. tariffs on international trade.
Vessel transits are up a modest 1.3 per cent from the end of November last year. As of December 1, 3,472 cargo vessels have navigated the waterway.
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