Last Saltie in Port of Duluth-Superior Loading Today, Expected to Depart Saturday

There was a flurry of grain-loading activity in the Twin Ports during the past several weeks as 17 oceangoing vessels ('salties') arrived to load cargoes ahead of winter closure of the St. Lawrence Seaway at the end of December.

DULUTH, Minn.-There was a flurry of grain-loading activity in the Twin Ports during the past several weeks as 17 oceangoing vessels (‘salties’) arrived to load cargoes ahead of winter closure of the St. Lawrence Seaway at the end of December.

The Federal Rhine will be the last saltie to leave the Port of Duluth-Superior this season, though Great Lakes freighters will continue to move bulk commodities for another month as weather and ice conditions allow since the Poe Lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., is scheduled to remain open until midnight Jan. 15.

The 656-foot Federal Rhine is loading 21,300 metric tons of durum wheat today and Saturday at the CHS elevator in Superior-wheat bound for Italy where it will be milled and made into pasta, which likely will be packaged and shipped back to U.S. grocery stores.

The Federal Rhine is expected to depart by mid-afternoon Saturday (Dec. 15), enabling the ship to clear Seaway locks well ahead of Christmas.