Despite a slight rise in water levels, Great Lakes shipping continues to suffer under the weight of near-record unfairly-traded steel imports. Cargo movement in U.S.-Flag vessels in June fell by 7.3 percent compared to a year ago.
Iron ore cargos in U.S. bottoms in June dropped 10 percent to 6.3 million tons. For the season, the U.S.-Flag iron ore float stands at 21.5 million tons, a decrease of more than 8 percent. With steel imports still commanding a significant share of the domestic market, American steel mills continue to operate at reduced levels. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the nation's largest iron ore mining company, will idle 3 of its U.S. mines to cut back production and reduce pellet stockpiles because of depressed market conditions.
Aided by increased demand from utilities due to the hot weather, coal loadings in U.S.-Flag lakers increased slightly in June and pushed the season-to-date total ahead of last year by 85,000 tons.
The slump in stone loadings continued in June. U.S.-Flag stone cargos fell by nearly 13 percent. The season-to-date total, 9.5 million tons, represents a decrease of more than 16 percent. The stone trade has been impacted by the steel crisis; fluxstone is used as a purifying agent in the steelmaking process, but the sluggish pace of the construction industry is also hampering the stone trade.
The U.S.-Flag Lakes fleet began June with 63 of its 69 vessels in service. That total fell to 60 on July 1 and today (August 13) stands at 61. Several cement carriers have been idled for short periods to adjust shipping and production capacity, and the one U.S.-Flag laker dedicated to the grain trade, the KINSMAN INDEPENDENT, was taken out of service on July 7. On August 9, the self-unloader ELTON HOYT 2ND was temporarily withdrawn from service.
Commodity | June 1999 | June 1998 | S-T-D 1999 | S-T-D 1998 |
| Iron Ore (a) | 6,288,925 | 6,990,973 | 21,457,829 | 23,353,570 |
| Coal - Western | 1,656,416 | 1,514,731 | 4,832,441 | 4,696,264 |
| Coal - Eastern | 1,013,701 | 1,057,122 | 2,814,494 | 2,866,306 |
Total - Coal | 2,670,117 | 2,571,853 | 7,646,935 | 7,562,570 |
| Limestone, Gypsum | 3,252,598 | 3,726,480 | 9,448,942 | 11,282,856 |
| Cement | 432,259 | 420,254 | 1,553,618 | 1,413,786 |
| Salt | 163,000 | 149,484 | 493,000 | 469,524 |
| Sand | 33,367 | 35,461 | 74,322 | 75,523 |
| Grain | 50,920 | 18,647 | 123,352 | 93,619 |
| Totals | 12,891,186 | 13,913,152 | 40,797,998 | 44,251,448 |
(a) Includes Lorain/Cleveland shuttle.