Burns Harbor port expects to beat 2010 shipments

The head of Indiana's state port system said Wednesday its Burns Harbor location is on track to handle more cargo in 2011 than in any year since 2006.

Ports of Indiana CEO Rich Cooper said in a news release issued Wednesday the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor should hit the milestone with about a month left in the shipping season. 

"Our shipments of steel, coal, fertilizer, wheat, limestone, oil and road salt have all well-surpassed last year's final totals," Cooper said. "We were fortunate to have a spike in our coal business and handled nearly four times as much coal as we did in 2010.

"We've also had large volumes of barge shipments moving steel, fertilizer, grain, asphalt and project cargo within the Lakes and through the Mississippi River system to and from the Gulf of Mexico."

The Burns Harbor port handled about 1.8 million tons of cargo in 2010, which was about 23 percent of the total among the the state's three ports. The other two are in Jeffersonville and Mount Vernon on the Ohio River.

Coal shipments were down at most Great Lakes ports, except Burns Harbor, according to the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corp., which the federal government wholly owns. The corporation builds, operates and maintains the U.S. portion of the St. Lawrence Seaway between the Port of Montreal and Lake Erie.

Total cargo shipments within the Seaway between March 22 and November 30 were 33 million metric tons, up 1.2 percent from the same period last year.