Dry-bulk cargos carried by U.S.-Flag lakers during the 1999 navigation season totaled 115.7 million net tons, a decrease of 5.5 percent compared to the 1998 shipping season. As such, the 1999 season represents the first significant fall-off in U.S.-Flag carriage since 1991, but the season did end with an upturn. U.S.-Flag carriage in December 1999 and January 2000 was ahead of the previous season's pace.
Two commodities accounted for the downturn - iron ore and stone. Shipments of iron ore in U.S. bottoms slipped below 60 million tons for the first time since 1995. The reason for this fall-off was simple - more than 32 million tons of steel were imported into the United States in 1999. The production of one ton of steel requires roughly 1.3 tons of iron ore, so each ton of dumped steel had a direct impact on the Lakes ore trade.
The stone trade was also impacted by the steel situation. It takes about 400 pounds of fluxstone (a type of limestone) to produce a ton of steel, so again, the 10.2 percent decrease in stone cargos relates to the unfair trade in steel. However, the stone trade was also impacted by high inventories at the beginning of the season and then delays in some major construction projects.
Shipments of other commodities were essentially unchanged from 1998.
| Commodity | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 |
| Iron Ore - Direct Shipments | 53,182,571 | 56,988,970 | 56,801,321 |
| Iron Ore - Transshipments | 5,903,842 | 5,811,764 | 6,581,364 |
Total - Iron Ore | 59,086,414 | 62,800,734 | 63,382,685 |
| Coal -- Western | 13,471,049 | 13,515,846 | 13,985,709 |
| Coal -- Eastern | 8,498,015 | 8,421,201 | 9,494,464 |
Total - Coal | 21,969,064 | 21,937,047 | 23,390,173 |
| Limestone, Gypsum | 28,392,094 | 31,618,104 | 29,820,120 |
| Cement | 4,373,812 | 4,286,049 | 4,204,028 |
| Salt | 1,309,894 | 1,312,157 | 1,002,934 |
| Sand | 249,238 | 234,300 | 272,218 |
| Grain | 346,814 | 352,083 | 669,741 |
| Totals | 115,727,330 | 122,540,474 | 122,741,899 |
Note: All totals are subject to final verification prior to publication in LCA's 1999 Annual Report.