Shipments of taconite rose as limestone shipments fell on the Great Lakes in May, according to reports issued by the Lake Carriers Association today.
U.S. vessels delivered 7.3 million tons of taconite pellets in May -- 15.4 percent more than they did during the same month last year and 16.4 percent more than the five-year average.
Higher water levels helped, with some lakers able to carry about 1,200 tons more per trip than last year.
Yet the Lake Carriers Association continues its call for increased dredging, saying that if shipping channels were restored to their prescribed depths, some of the larger lakers could carry another 5,000 to 6,000 tons of taconite each trip.
Through May of this year, Great Lakes freighters have moved 18.6 million tons of taconite -- 10.4 percent more than last year.
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Meanwhile, shipments of limestone dipped to 4.2 million tons in May -- a decline of 3.4 percent compared with the same month last year. Total movements of limestone on the Great Lakes in 2008 are down more significantly, running 6.7 percent behind what was handled during the same period last year and 14 percent below the five-year average.
Limestone is added to taconite pellets as a flux agent for steelmakers. It also is used as a precipitate in scrubbers for coal-fired plants and is used to process beets into sugar.
Jerry Freyberger, chairman of Hallett Dock Co., a Twin Ports facility which handles limestone, among other cargoes, said that despite a slightly softer start to limestone shipments this year, he expects shipments to pick up. Freyberger said he anticipates limestone shipments for 2008 will be comparable to last year.
