Indiana-Jeffersonville sets port tonnage record

2015 was a strong year for the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville, located on the Ohio River in metro Louisville, especially for metal and grain shipments.    For the second year in a row, the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville set an annual shipping record with total cargo tonnage for 2015 exceeding the previous year’s volume by nearly 16 percent. The port said it handled 2.8 million tons of cargo in 2015, driven by heavy volumes of agriculture and steel products.
  Shipments of steel more than doubled the previous record set in 2014, helped in part by rising demand in the U.S. auto industry, which sold a record 17.5 million light trucks and cars in 2015. The port’s ‘steel campus’ includes 12 metal processing companies serving the automotive, appliance and construction industries. Grain volume was the second highest in port history, following only the record harvest year of 2014. 
   The Port of Indian-Jeffersonville is located on the Ohio River in metro Louisville.
   For the full year, the port handled approximately 1,300 barges, 17,000 rail cars and 180,000 trucks. Shipments of fertilizer, oils and minerals were up during the year and helped drive the record volume. 
   In 2015, the port was awarded a $10 million TIGER Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which will partially fund a $17 million intermodal project. It also broke ground on a $30 million transportation corridor that will link the port to the River Ridge Commerce Center’s 6,000-acre industrial park.