Shipments of most categories of freight on the St. Lawrence Seaway are still down from last year’s year-to-date figures with two weeks left in the season.

But the Chamber of Marine Commerce is expecting the Seaway to have a strong finish to the shipping season delivering raw materials and exports for North America’s industrial and agricultural sectors before the waterway closes Dec. 31.

Overall, tonnage is down 5.89 percent through November, compared with last year’s shipments through November.

Freighters have carried 30.3 million metric tons of cargo this year through November compared with 32.2 million tons last year.

Liquid bulk tonnage is up by 19.13 percent, the only category reported by the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation to have an improved record this year. Last year 2.8 million tons were shipped; this year it’s 3.4 million tons.

U.S. grain shipments reached nearly 2.3 million metric tons through November, about 7.7 percent above last year. All grain shipments, the category with the highest volume, are down slightly, by 8,000 tons, or 0.09 percent.

Iron ore shipments, down 10 percent over 2015 volumes, have improved in recent months due to the resurgence of iron ore pellet exports via the Seaway to Japan and China following improved global pricing, the Marine Chamber reports.

In other categories, coal is down by 18.06 percent, dry bulk is down 13.17 percent, and general cargo is of by 6 percent.

Vessel transits through the system are down slightly, from 3,385 last year to 3,373 this year, or 0.35 percent.