Although the new fiscal year for the Port of Oswego Authority kicked off just one month ago, business continues to follow a positive trend experienced at the port in recent years.

This comes as little surprise to Executive Director Jonathan Daniels and the staff at the port, as the recently tallied numbers for the 2007 fiscal year indicate award-winning growth and production.

Over the course of the last fiscal year, which ran from April 2007 through March 2008, the Oswego port saw a total of 85 vessels come through all of their terminals. Daniels also noted that more than 1 million tons of cargo was moved through the port in the one-year period. Included as a part of that tonnage moved was 182,000 tons of cargo that came through via the St. Lawrence Seaway system, originating from outside of the Great Lakes. This cargo that was sent through the port came from as far away as Montreal, Quebec, Indonesia and Brazil.

“These numbers are utilized to justify the Pace Setter Awards,” Daniels said. “The awards are based on measurements done on any vessel or cargo that come from outside and then move through the St. Lawrence system to enter the Great Lakes. The Pace Setter Awards are given to those who show annual increase in their movement of international cargo that traverses the St. Lawrence Seaway system.”

With the international tonnage moved this fiscal year through the St. Lawrence Seaway System via the port, Oswego’s port has been selected as an award recipient for the fourth consecutive year.

“This award certainly shows the port’s importance when it comes to evaluating all activities for international commerce,” said Daniels. “It shows that we are not only seeing growth in total through put, but we are also seeing a steady increase in cargo coming in that is originating outside of the Great Lakes system. What this all shows is that we are not growing from a slight margin of 1 ton up to 2 tons, while that is still growth, we are seeing annual growth marked in tens of thousands of tons and we are seeing a great diversity of cargo ... that bodes extremely well for the port.”

Although the final financial figures for the past fiscal year are not yet available, Daniels noted that he expects to see an increase there as well. “We certainly enjoyed very strong financial numbers over the past year as well ...We saw a strong margin of increase in our revenue activity over the past year and we are certainly looking forward to seeing a continuation of that momentum for what has already started out as a strong year for the port.”