U.S.-flag Great Lakes freighters moved 8.4 mil­lion tons of car­go in Novem­ber, an increase of 6.7 per­cent com­pared to a year ago. How­ev­er, the Novem­ber float was 6.7 per­cent below the month’s five-year average.
Iron ore car­goes for the steel indus­try totaled 4.7 mil­lion tons in Novem­ber, an increase of 29.6 per­cent com­pared to a year ago. How­ev­er, coal ship­ments to pow­er plants and steel mills fell to 1.2 mil­lion tons, a decrease of more than 20 per­cent. Aggre­gate and flux­s­tone for con­struc­tion projects and steel pro­duc­tion totaled 2 mil­lion tons, a decrease of near­ly 10 per­cent com­pared to a year ago.

Year-over-year, U.S.-flag car­riage stands at 76.2 mil­lion tons, a decrease of 4.5 per­cent. Iron ore car­goes are up 6.6 per­cent, but coal loads have dipped 25.8 per­cent. Lime­stone ship­ments trail last year by 7 percent.

Source: Lake Car­ri­ers’ Asso­ci­a­tion Decem­ber 19, 2016