Port of Monroe receives first European cargo shipment in 50 years

The shipment from Bremen, Germany included windmill blades and 127 sections of 40-foot long pipes for the Ohio gas line.    The Port of Monroe, located on Lake Erie between Toledo and Detroit, received its first European cargo shipment since the 1960’s this week.
   The cargo made a two-week journey from Bremen, Germany aboard the 411-foot Faglegracht, a Spliethoff Lines container vessel registered in Amsterdam, according to a report from the Monroe News.
   The shipments, which were handled by logistics company Carl Polzin, included windmill blades and 127 sections of 40-foot long pipes. The pipes will be used for the Ohio gas line, which will span from Ohio, through Michigan to Ontario, Port Director Paul LaMarre III said in a statement.
   The Port of Monroe is better equipped to handle international cargo as a result of significant dredging over the past two shipping seasons, which deepened the channel draft to a low-water average of 21 feet and the turn basin to 18 feet. In addition, the abundance of precipitation helped raise water levels, LaMarre said.
   “We hope this is the start of regular business. There are a lot of clean energy products coming into the Great Lakes, as well as gas and oil projects,” Carl Polzin’s CEO Patric Drewes said. “In the Port of Monroe, we have definitely found a port that can handle this kind of cargo.”