Great Lakes iron ore shipments inch up 1.8% in May

Shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway saw a slight uptick in May compared to a year earlier, despite being lower than the month’s five-year average, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association.    Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway totaled 6.1 million tons in May, an increase of 1.8 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the Lake Carriers’ Association.
   However, shipments came in below the month’s five-year average of 6.5 million tons.
   During the month, shipments from U.S. Great Lakes ports totaled 5.7 million tons, an increase of 5 percent from May 2016, while Canadian shipments stood at 390,000 tons, a decrease of almost 30 percent.
   For the first five months of 2017, 17 million tons of iron ore were shipped through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, an increase of 10.2 percent over the same period last year.
   U.S. ports increased loadings by 11.3 percent from the first five months of 2016, while Canadian port loadings remained flat.