b'24American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comGreat Lakes ports benefitingBREAKBULK from robust breakbulk trendsCanadianandU.S.GreatLakeportsareupbeataboutcargoQUARTERLYprospects in 2022.By Leo Ryan, AJOTThroughoutUSandCanadiansteel,recentlystatedDebDeLuca, ports on the Great Lakes, stakehold- executivedirectorofthelargestUS ers involved in breakbulk activity areGreatLakesportwhichisamajor similarly upbeat over cargo prospectsplayer in breakbulk as well as break-in 2022. This notably follows the solidbulk cargoes.increase in steel and iron ore cargoesSouthern Wisconsins premier dis-that allowed the St. Lawrence Seawaytributionhubforaccesstodomestic to post a total throughput of 38 mil- andworldmarkets,PortMilwaukee lion tons in 2021, despite the declinehandles a wide variety of breakbulk ingraintraffic.The2021totalwasand non-containerized cargo, includ-slightlyabovethepreviousyearasing steel coils, wind turbine compo-theCOVID-19pandemiccontinuednents, mining equipment and project to impact global supply chains, portscargoes. Last year, this port on Lake and transportation providers. Michigan handled 11.2 million tons.Last year, one should recall, grainIndustry analysts single out Port cropssufferedfromdroughtcondi- Milwaukee as a gateway with a sig-tions in western Canada and the USnificantlybiggerdimensioninthe Midwest region. near future that will pay dividends for Onthebreakbulkside,statistics(TRENDScontinued on page 32)BBC Swift unloading wind farm components at Port of Duluth.Photo credit: Gus and David Schaueron combined US and Canadian traf-ficfromSeawaysourcesforindi-vidualitemsconfirmedadynamic trend.Iron and Steel was up 109% at 2,695,000 tons. Steel slabs climbed to 748,000 tons.TerenceBowles,thepresident and CEO of the St. Lawrence Seaway ManagementCorporation(SLSMC), anticipates a busy navigational season in 2022. In 2021, volumes went up 1.6 per cent from the previous year, butifyouremovegrainfromthat equationbecauseoftheapproxi-mately20%dropinharvestdueto drought, everything else was almost 13% higher, Bowles says. So that gives us some idea of how much the economy has kicked up since the pan-demic shutdown in 2020 and why we can be optimistic.us P ortP AtternsThe Port of Cleveland saw a 69% increase in tonnage across its docksRed Hook Terminals is leading in 2021 compared to 2020. This surge was attributed to significant increasesthe way for a sustainable future in in non-containerized goods, contain-erized cargo, and iron ore shipmentsthe Port of NY&NJ with our totheCleveland-CliffsCleveland Works steel mill. South Brooklyn Offshore Wind Generalcargoterminalvolume, including steel and project cargo, surgedport development SBMT, zero by 57% to 650,000 metric tons. Con-tainershandleddoubledcomparedtoemission terminal equipment, 2020. A key contributor was Spliethoffs Cleveland-EuropeExpress(seesepa-rate report covering container develop- cross harbor barge services and ments on the Great Lakes on page 30).Early in 2021, the Port completedother industry leading initiatives.two major infrastructure projects that paved the way for the increased cargo volumes.First,thePortexpanded its iron ore tunnel at the Cleveland-BulkTerminal,providingadditionalLeading The Waycapacityforthemovementofiron ore. Additionally,thePortopeneda new modernized and expanded main gateatitsgeneralcargofacility, whichallowsforthemoreefficient movementoftrucks,decreaseswait times for drivers, and more efficiently moves cargo on/off Port property.Re-boundingfrom2020span-demic-inducedlows,totalvolume handled by the Port of Duluth-Supe-rior rose to 32.9 million short tons inwww.RedHookTerminals.com2021- representing a 27% increase.Were still waiting on the return to normalcy, but the tonnage bounce backwaspronounced,drivenespe-cially by strong demand for domestic Redhook Terminals - NYNJ 2021 -V8.indd 1 8/17/21 11:05 AM'