WASHINGTON: The Ports of Indiana, the statewide port authority that operates three ports on the Ohio River and Lake Michigan, said that its shipments during the first nine months of this calendar year were up over 10 percent compared to the first three quarters of 2016. Total tons handled reached over 8.1 million, the second highest volume during the first nine months of any year in the organization’s 56-year history, the port authority said.
Ports of Indiana attributed the growth at its three marine ports – Mount Vernon, Burns Harbor and Jeffersonville – primarily to increased shipments of coal, steel, fertilizer and ethanol. At the Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon, volumes for the first nine months of 2017 rose to over 4.5 million tons, a 15 percent increase from 2016 figures and the second highest ever at the port for that time period, according to the port authority. The authority also stated that the port is on track for a third consecutive year exceeding 6 million tons of total cargo throughput. Coal and ethanol shipments were up 31 and 34 percent, respectively, compared to last year, shipments of salt rose 54 percent, fertilizer was up 49 percent and minerals jumped 32 percent. Data shows that the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor handled 2 million tons of freight this January through September, which was not only its second-highest total ever for that nine-month time period, but also the second highest September in the port’s history.
The port authority said that overall shipments for the first three quarters of 2017 rose nearly 11 percent at Burns Harbor, as steel cargoes were up nearly 49 percent, oils up 40 percent and grains up almost 14 percent compared to last year. Ship and barge traffic were both up 20 percent during the first three quarters. Shipments during the quarter included ICARUS, the world’s largest liquid argon particle hunter and the most valuable piece of cargo ever handled at the port. The multi-million dollar instrument was shipped from Geneva, Switzerland, to Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. At the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville, the first three quarters of the year reached over 1.6 million tons, driven, in part, by auto- and construction-related steel processing, the Port of Indiana has said. The nine-month tonnage for 2017 was 9 percent higher than the previous five-year average and the port continues to track toward a fourth-consecutive year of handling in excess of two million tons of cargo, according to the port authority.
