Commodities Through The Port

Grain        Directory of Port Services

• Grains marketed both privately and through the Canadian Wheat Board move through the Port of Thunder Bay. From the farmlands of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, grain moves to port by rail for further shipment by water to markets served by the Great Lakes/Seaway System.
• Grain accounts for about 70% of the port's overall throughput. Annual shipments of 5-6million tonnes of grain products are cleaned and handled through the grain terminals at Thunder Bay.

Liquid Bulk

• Bulk liquids such as petroleum products, calcium chloride, and caustic soda account for about 2% of the port's annual throughput.
  • A. Petroleum Products Petro Canada is the sole petroleum company operating terminals in the Port of Thunder Bay. The products are shipped to Thunder Bay for storage and further distribution to service stations, manufacturing and pulp and paper industries.
  • B. Chemicals There  is one chemical company which maintains storage facilities at the port. General Chemical Co. receives calcium chloride, via the marine mode, from Southern Ontario. It is off-loaded into storage tanks for distribution throughout Northwestern Ontario.

Dry Bulk

• Dry-Bulk commodities such as coal, potash, and other free-flowing mineral and agricultural products account for about 30% of the port's overall tonnage. Coal and potash are railed from Canada's prairie provinces into Thunder Bay where ships take on loads of up to 30,000 tonnes.
• Over two million tonnes of dry-bulk cargoes move through the port each year through two facilities, Thunder Bay Terminals Limited and Valley Camp Inc.. Besides coal and potash there are such commodities as urea, sand, stone, salt, and limestone.

General Cargoes

• General cargoes account for about 2% of the port's overall throughput. Lumber, newsprint, wood pulp, and other products from the forest industry, manufactured goods, heavy equipment, machinery, bagged goods, steel and food products, project cargoes, heavy lifts and containers, are just some of the many products classified as "general cargo", and handled at the Port of Thunder Bay.