Shipping Up In the Northland

DULUTH, Minn. — Well the numbers are in, the shipping season bounced back this past year after the pandemic dragged it down in 2020, with almost 30 percent more tons of product coming through the port.

The product that topped the charts once again was iron ore which continues to be the king cargo for the Duluth port.

Iron ore topped 20 million tons twice in the past four years, which hasn’t happened since the early 1990’s.

Although the port would like to see more grain and wind cargo deliveries they feel that 20-22 is trending in the right direction.

“But what we can see is continued strong demand for iron ore on the horizon, so that looks to, there’s no indication that that’s going to slow down which is obviously a good thing for our port, the fact demand stays high, so were looking at 20-22 to be pretty strong so far,” Jayson Hron, Director Of Communication And Marketing, Duluth Seaway Port Authority said.

Currently there are 5 ships wintering in the port which is one more than last year and staff tells us this is the prime time of year to do maintenance on the ships, from steel work to engine repairs.