PORTAGE: Exports topped imports at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor for the first time in several months as the Great Lakes shipping season wound down. “We saw increased exports of grain and other bulk products moving to Quebec in recent shipments,” Port Director Rick Heimann said.
“Quebec is a key trading partner for us because that region serves as a gateway to the Great Lakes in a similar way that our port serves as a gateway to the U.S. Midwest and the inland waterway system.”
The deepwater port on Lake Michigan recently entered into a pact with Quebec to boost shipping even further, after a 30 percent increase in trade between the two over the last five years.
“Grain from midwestern farms can be shipped on Great Lakes vessels from our port to Quebec and loaded onto larger ocean vessels for trans-Atlantic shipments,” Heimann said. “Developing these types of regional partnerships is vital to realizing the full potential of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.”
Year-to-date cargo shipments on the St. Lawrence Seaway are down 11 percent from 32 million metric tons last year to 30 million metric tons this year, and iron ore – a key input for domestic steelmaking – dropped 7 percent. Grain shipments however are up 11 percent, explaining the export boom the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor has seen, since it usually receives imported steel or brewery tanks or windmill blades and sends the ships back out with exported grain.
“Agricultural commodities along with dry bulk, general cargo and containerized goods continued to enhance cargo tonnage on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System during the month of November,” said Betty Sutton, administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp.
“With just under a month remaining in the 2015 navigation season, we anticipate vessel activity in the Seaway System to be robust right up to closing.” Great Lakes shipping typically comes to a half for a few months during the winter when the lakes are too covered with ice to be navigable.
