Lakes Limestone Trade Steady in August

Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes totaled 3,941,085 tons in August, a near carbon copy of both a year ago and July of this year, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association. Limestone cargos also bettered the month’s five-year average by 5.8 percent.

Loadings from U.S. quarries totaled 3.248 million tons, a decrease 3.3 percent, or 110,000 tons, compared to a year ago. Shipments from Canadian quarries totaled 693,003 tons, an increase of 9.4 percent or roughly three loads in a mid-sized laker.

Year-to-date the Lakes limestone trade stands at 17.2 million tons, an increase of 3.5 percent compared to a year ago. Loadings from Michigan and Ohio quarries total 14.1million tons, an increase of 3.3 percent. Shipments from Ontario quarries total 3.1 million tons, an increase 4.5 percent.

Lake Carriers’ Association represents 13 American companies that operate 45 U.S.-flag vessels on the Great Lakes and carry the raw materials that drive the nation’s economy: iron ore and fluxstone for the steel industry, aggregate and cement for the construction industry, coal for power generation, as well as salt, sand and grain. Collectively, its members can transport more than 90 million tons of dry bulk cargo per year and employ more than 1,600 men and women, all of whom are U.S. citizens or legally admitted aliens, and provide annual wages and benefits of approximately $125 million. In turn, those cargos create and sustain nearly 116,00 jobs in the eight Great Lakes states and generate more than $20 billion in economic activity, $8.3 billion in personal income, $16.4 billion in business revenue, $4.1 billion in local purchases and $3.7 billion in taxes.

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