Lambert believes that shipping containers could eventually move in to replace the lost grain shipments, though he and others say container shipping will be slow to make it to the area. So far, containers have not made much headway on the Upper Mississippi, but there’s really no reason they couldn’t. These containers could carry just about anything—appliances, electronics, segregated “identity preserved” shipments of grain that is not genetically modified. Containers are being moved on the river shipping system now—just not all the way up in Minnesota.
“We’re in the market to move containers,” says Norb Whitlock, executive vice president of operations for American Commercial Lines, Inc., one of the country’s largest barge lines, which has moved empty containers from Lake Michigan south through the river system. Over the next few years, Whitlock adds, “there is expected to be a huge flow of containers into the U.S., mostly through West Coast ports.”
Thanks to heavy Asian trade, West Coast ports are now so congested that some ocean liners have been bringing containers through the Suez Canal and into East Coast ports. The biggest ships currently can’t get through the Panama Canal (which is being enlarged).
“The only time we’ll see much in container flow [on the Upper Mississippi] is if we see more congestion in West Coast ports and if a container port is put into the Port of New Orleans,” Whitlock says. In other words, container movement (if it happens) on the Upper Mississippi would start small, and it could take years to build up to a sustainable level.
“The upper river is a very vital link in the entire system,” says river veteran Ed Williams. “And there’s a lot of remaining river talent [in Minnesota].” The system is intact and viable. It just needs something to ship.
