After a long and harsh winter, Polsteam’s ships return to the American Great Lakes. Due to specific weather conditions, the season in those waters lasts from late March to mid-December. In winter months – owing to ice – navigation ceases.
   The first one to appear on the St. Lawrence Seaway, leading across all the Great Lakes, was Polsteam’s ”Iryda”. Once loaded with steel in Dutch Ijmuiden at the end of March, the ship unloaded in Cleveland and then took grain at Duluth, a port that is the farthest from the Atlantic and it sailed back to Europe. A twin of “Iryda” – m/s “Isa” followed into its footsteps, calling at the same ports of loading and unloading two weeks later.
   Polsteam’s ships have for years traditionally operated in the market of the American Great Lakes. The region links two Canadian provinces and eight American states. It is inhabited by 40 million people and is of great importance to the entire economy of the North American continent. It is here that 40 per cent of the US industrial production and over 60 per cent of the Canadaian industrial production is carried out.
   The entire navigation route of the Great Lakes stretches across the length of 3500 kilometers, from St. Lawrence Bay to Duluth port on Lake Superior. Laker type ships are operated on the route, measuring: maximum width – 23.7 m, maximum length – 220 m and draught – 8.68 m. These dimensions permit vessels to squeeze through a complicated system of locks and canals, which divides individual water reservoirs, which lie at different heights.
   For many years Polsteam has operated here ships of “Argentinian Ziemia” type (inter alia, m/s “Ziemia Zamojska”, m/s “Ziemia Chełmińska”, etc.). However, the vessels, due to slightly more advanced age – have been withdrawn from navigating in these waters. Any breakdown in the system of locks could result in  enormous financial consequences, that is why charterers demand the most modern vessels to transport their cargo on the Great Lakes. Lakers of “Isa” type are surely an example of such ships, built in Japan during 1999-2000. It was these ships that replaced the “Argentinian lands” in that market. From this year onwards “Isa” type ships will be supported by the newest series of Polsteam’s ships of m/s “Miedwie” type.
   For a long time now Polsteam has successfully been cooperating with Corus UK company (previously Hoogovens), which delivers steel from Holland to ports of the American Great Lakes. That steel is used in car manufacture. Ijmuden near Amsterdam is a port of loading, while Cleveland and Chicago ports handle the unloading. In the course of a typical season (not affected by a crisis), Polsteam conducts from 15 to 25 trips to the Great Lakes for Corus company, carrying approximately half a million tons of steel per year.
   On return trips the Szczecin shipowner’s ships carry grain cargo from the farthest ports of the Great Lakes, that is from Duluth or Thunder Bay, for regular clients such as Cargill. Owing to the limited draught, ships take onboard only a part of the cargo. The rest is loaded at ports located at the exit from St Lawrence Seaway, that is in the region of Montreal.
   Polsteam is a leading ocean-going vessel owner operating in the waters of the Great Lakes.