St. Louis regional ports ranked tops in efficiency by USACE

The St. Louis region’s barge industry has handled 500,000 tons per mile, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), making the region two-and-a-half times more efficient than its closest competitors.    St. Louis regional ports were recently ranked as the most efficient inland port district in terms of tons moved per river mile by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), according to the St. Louis Regional Freightway.
   The Regional Freightway is a freight district and comprehensive authority for freight operations and opportunities within eight counties in Illinois and Missouri that comprise the St. Louis metropolitan area.
   The St. Louis region’s barge industry handled 500,000 tons per mile during 2015, the most recent year for which final numbers are available, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
   The amount made the region two and half times more efficient on its river usage than its closest competitors, the ports of Huntington-Tristate, West Virginia and ports of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky, which ranked second and third on the Army Corps list by moving 215,000 and 200,000 tons per river mile, respectively.
   St. Louis region barge industry efficiencies translated into one-third of all freight traffic along the section of the Mississippi River from Minneapolis, Minn., to the Ohio River near Cairo, Ill., being captured by regional ports and river terminals, according to the Regional Freightway.
   The 70-mile St. Louis regional port system carried one-third of all 2015 freight on the 855-mile section of the river despite representing only eight percent of the section, according to the Corps of Engineers.
   The ability to capture more than 30 percent of the market share of 109 million total tons of all freight traffic was attributed to many factors by the Regional Freightway, including excess capacity at river terminals; high concentrations of barges; strong intermodal connectivity; and the region’s location in the heart of America’s agricultural heartland, which provides access on the Mississippi River to and from the Gulf of Mexico. 
   “It’s a combination that adds up to the St. Louis region having inexpensive barge freight rates for the handling of fertilizer, steel, manufactured goods, coal, petroleum products and agricultural commodities,” St. Louis Regional Freightway Executive Director Mary Lamie said in a statement.