Continued Mississippi River flooding restricts barge traffic

Many agricultural shippers are storing grain or using rail to get commodities to export markets as a result of the continued closure of an entire section of the important freight corridor.    The Mississippi River is expected to rise to almost 45 feet Thursday, the highest level since it crested at 49.58 feet in August 1993.
   The flooding, which is abnormal for this time of year, is impacting barge traffic on the river.
   The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday it closed an entire section the Mississippi River between mile markers 179 and 184 near St. Louis to vessel traffic and has yet to reopen it.
   Since then, the Coast Guard has further restricted traffic on the Mississippi River from mile marker 110 near Chester, Ill. to mile marker 34 near Billings Landing, Miss.; and on the Illinois River, which is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, between mile marker 0, near the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, and mile marker 50. 
   Drier weather is in the forecast, but the water will flow to the lower Mississippi River, which accounts for 58 percent of U.S. soybean exports and 67 percent of U.S. corn exports. It will take three to four weeks for the water in the upper Mississippi and Ohio River regions to be expelled from the lower Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.
   According to Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, 80 percent of U.S. soybean exports occur between September and February.
   Prior to the South American harvest, which occurs between February and April, the U.S. is the leading supplier of soybeans on the global marketplace. As a result, any disruption of service during this time is of concern to U.S. farmers and distributors.
   The Class I railroads, however, are well positioned to accommodate volumes that need to be diverted from barge to reach ports around the country for transfer to ocean-going vessels, Steenhoek said in e-mail to his members.
   That’s a big change from two years ago, when bad weather and outages due to construction for new track capacity, limited available service and caused hardship for agricultural shippers. Railroads now have the capacity to absorb additional volumes, he noted, and many farmers are electing to store a large portion of their harvest this year in order to sell when prices are better.