Grain shipments have been a bright spot in a tough year for shipping on the Great Lakes, to ports such as the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor and the Port of Chicago, reports NWI.com.
Ocean-faring ships known as salties have shipped a total of 23.3 million tons of international cargo through the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes thus far this year, a drop of 8% as compared to the same period in 2019.
U.S. grain shipments, however, rose to 1.1 million tons through the end of September, an increase of 4% year-over-year.
“U.S. grain export shipments year-to-date have surpassed last year’s totals for this same time period. With three months remaining in the Great Lakes–Seaway shipping season, we anticipate shipments of grain exports to remain strong, especially with Canadian crop yields being particularly robust this year," Craig Middlebrook, deputy administrator of the U.S. Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., told NWI.com.
