SOVIET MERCHANT FLEET EXPANDING WINTER SHIPPING SERVICE INTO MONTREAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T01003A002400220001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 1, 1965
• Content Type: BRIEF

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7-1
OIts.f RR..GB 65-
November 1961,5
copy No. 17h
INTELLIGENCE ,BRIEF
_ SOVIET MERCHANT TLZ T
E) P "ND NG WIN I Eft ` I P 7c a R CTIC
INTO MOVT EAL
IRECTO ATE. OF IN y CE
Officee of Research and Reports
CONFID#!1`fr$'lAid,
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This material contains information affecting
the National Defense of the United States
within the meaning of the espionage laws,
Title 18, USC, Sees. 793 and 794, the trans-
mission or revelation of which in any manner
to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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 Approved For Release 200110 /1 I PPJ?P11RQ3 2 0 220001-0
SOVIET MERCHANT FLEET
EXPANDING WINTER SHIPPING SERVICE
INTO MONTREAL"'
The USSR may reap substantial benefits from the recent opening
of Montreal as a year-round seaport because it is one of the few nations
in the world with ships in its merchant fleet that are reinforced for
navigation through ice. Winter trade out of Montreal offers hard cur-
rency earnings to Soviet ships p.t a time of the year when the USSR
has ship tonnage to spare. Three Soviet ships called at Montreal
during the 1964/65 winter season, and at least 14 are expected during
the 1965/66 seasond If experience shows that winter operations into
Montreal are consistently feasible, the USSR has a sufficient number
of ships with ice reinforcement to dominate the trade.
1. Current Status of Montreal as a Year-round Port
Until the 1963/64 winter season, Montreal, the leading seaport in
Canada, was closed by ice for an average of three to four months of each
year, usually between mid-December and mid-April. During the winter,
many Canadian foreign trade cargoes that would otherwise move through
Montreal are diverted to either St. Johns, New Brunswick, or Halifax,
Nova Scotia. These ports are understandably jealous of their winter
business and have thus far been able to exert sufficient influence on the
Canadian Parliament to prevent the use of Canadian government ice-
breakers to maintain a channel into Montreal during the winter months.
During the 1963/64 winter season, however, the Lauritzen Line, a
Danish steamship company, inaugurated. a winter cargo line between
Western Europe and Montreal using ships with ice reinforcement and
thereby reduced the period of winter closure in Montreal to eleven days.
2. Soviet Participation in Winter Shipping to Montreal
In 1964 the USSR decided to open a winter liner service between
Western Europe and Montreal. This decision marked an important
change in Soviet shipping policy. Previously the USSR had established
cargo lines only on routes where there were substantial volumes of
Soviet foreign trade cargoes to move. Most of the cargoes moving
* The estimates and conclusions in this brief represent the best judgment
of this Office as of 24 November 1965.
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C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-I-A-L
on this new line will be non-Soviet. Because it is a liner service,
most of the cargoes to be carried will be general rather than bulk.
There are excellent reasons for the Soviet decision to open this line.
As a result of its wheat purchases from Canada, the USSR
carries a huge deficit in its balance of payments with Canada, which
imports almost nothing from the USSR. The establishment of a suc-
cessful liner service into Montreal during the winter months should
contribute in a small way to a reduction in this trade deficit. The
line appears to have a good business potential. It is economically
advantageous for Canadian shippers to use Montreal rather than
St. Johns or Halifax when they can, and there is a good balance be-
tween westbound and eastbound cargoes on the route between Western
Europe and Montreal.
Seasonal Availability of Soviet Ships
The expansion of the Soviet merchant fleet during recent
years has attracted worldwide attention. One result of this expansion
is that during the 1964/65 winter season the USSR had a seasonal
surplus of dry cargo tonnage for the first time in its history. Many
of these ships were made available to Free World shippers on a time
charter basis; three were assigned to the winter line into Montreal.
Whether hired but to foreign charterers or put into liner service,
surplus ships such as these can play an important role as earners
of foreign exchange for the Soviet economy.
A Unique Soviet Advance
The Soviet merchant fleet condacts extensive operations in
the ice-filled waters of the Northern Sea Route each summer and
maintains shipping services into many frozen northern ports during
the winter with the assistance of icebreakers. For this reason the
Soviet dry cargo fleet includes more than 100 ships that are reinforced
for navigation through ice. Because the Soviet merchant fleet is one
of the few in the world that include such ships, the USSR has a distinct
advantage over most Free World steamship companies in competing
for winter cargoes out of Montreal.
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3. Prospects for the 196.5/66 Winter Season
Port officials in Montreal expect more than 50 calls by ships
during the 1965/66 winter season. Both. the Danish Lauritzen Line
and the Soviet Northern Steampship Company will play major roles.
Canadian Pacific, Finn Lines, Ltd. , and Canada Steamship Lines,
Ltd. , will also participate, using ice-reinforced ships. The Cunard
Steamship Company has plans to take part in this winter movement
eventually but has yet to acquire or charter ice-reinforced ships.
The USSR has announced that 14 of its ships will participate
in the St. Lawrence. winter service during the 1965/66 season, but
the number of calls each will make is uncertain. The ports in Western
Europe to be served by these ships are Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam,
Antwerp, and Le Havre. The St.Lawrence Ports to be served are
Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec. The ships will include 7, 000-
DWT icebreaker cargo ships of the Amguema and Lena classes and
5, 000-DWT dry cargo ships of the Dnepro-GES and Povenets classes.
Ships in the Amguema and Lena classes belong to the highest
category of ice-reinforced ships in the Soviet fleet (see the chart).
Such ships are designed from the keel up for ice navigation and should
be able to handle all ice conditions encountered in the St. Lawrence
without assistance. Ships in the Dnepro-GES and Povenets classes
belong to the second highest category of ice-reinforced ships, which
normally would have difficulty in handling extreme ice conditions on
the St. Lawrence without assistance from either an icebreaker or an
icebreaker cargo ship. Most ships in the second highest ice-
reinforcement category -- which numbers about 100 -- are conventional
dry cargo ships that were built with special features for navigation
through ice. These features include icebreaker bows as well as supple-
mental framing and hull plating.
During the 1964/65 winter season the departure of a Soviet dry
cargo ship in this category was delayed at Montreal for three weeks
as the result of difficult ice conditions. Soviet ships scheduled to
call at Montreal during the 1965/66 winter season will arrive and
depart in pairs to avoid a repetition of ::this occurrence. Each of
the two pairs of ships scheduled for calls in January includes one
ship in the highest ice-reinforcement category and one in the second
highest category. The pairs scheduled thus far for arrival in December
and February include . only ships in the second highest category. If
Montreal officials fail to overcome the political obstacles to the use of
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icebreakers in facilitating winter navigation into Montreal and if Soviet
attempts to use ships in the second highest ice-reinforcement category
continue to fail, the USSR may be restricted in its future winter opera-
tions in the St. Lawrence to the use of ships in the highest category of
ice-reinforcement and accompanying ships in the second highest cate-
gory. There are, however, at least eight Soviet ships in the highest
category, which, if they are available, could assure Soviet domination
of the Montreal winter trade.
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C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-I-A-L
Analyst
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 CONTROL RECORD FOR SUPPLEMENTAL DISTRIBUTION 25X1A
SERIES NUMBER
CIA/RR CB 65-72
CLASSIFICATION OF REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
DISTRIBUTION TO RC
50
DATE OF DOCUMENT
November 1965
NUMBER OF COPIES
290
NUMBER IN RC
COPY
RECIPIENT
DATE
NO.(S)
SENT
RETURNED
176-24
Rec!_d in St/P/C
2 Dec 65
176
SA/RR
II
177
St/P
178
CGS/HR/OPS
179
OCR 25X1A
180
181
25X1A
182-24
Filed in St/P/C
2 Dec 65
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Analyst: T/IS
(Project 34. 5288)
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FORM 2353 (13)
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St/A/DS Distribution of Current Support Brief No. 45>7`", Soviet
MerchAnt Fleet Expanding Winter Shipping Service Into Montreal -~-
November 1965 (CONFIDENTIAL)
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7
MEMORANDUM FOR: Chief, Dissemination Control. Branch, DD/CR
FROM Chief, Publications Staff, ORR
SUBJECT Transmittal of Material
ember 1965
It is requested that the attached copies of CIA./RR CB
65-72, Soviet
Merchant Fleet axidin Winter #aippi Service into Montrea i, November 1965,
Conf denti $ be fore r .ed as folows:
State, INR Communications Center,
Room 6527, State Dept. Bldg.
Suggested distribution for
Embassies in
Bonn, Londonj,
I 1ascow, and Ottawa
ACTION COMPLETED 25X1 A
The dissemination requested by
this memorandum has been completeds
BY;
Attachments: 4
Copies #183 - #186 of C1 6
-72
ce: CG/BB (w th Cow 187 of 65-72
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 -Approved For Release 2001/04/17.. CIA_RDP79i 03A002400220001-0
Project No. 34. 5288
November 1965 (CONFIDENTIAL
. Report Series CIA/RR CB 65-72
Soviet Merchant Fleet Expanding Winter Shipping Service Into Montreal --
Responsible Responsible Analyst and Branch T/IS
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