The Northern Indiana Port District ranked second on the Great Lakes, according to a new ranking by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The national port ranking placed the Northern Indiana Port District, which encompasses the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor, private terminals and the steel mills that get frequent shipments from ore boats, second among the Great Lakes ports in cargoes. The Southern Indiana Port District, which consists of Indiana's two ports along the Ohio River, came in first among inland ports.
Indiana vaulted up the rankings after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped counting multiple ports separately and started lumping together all the ports along the Ohio River at the southern edge of Indiana and the 45 miles of coastline along Lake Michigan.
Last year, the Northern Indiana Port District on Lake Michigan handled 30.3 million tons of cargo like iron ore, steel products, wind turbine blades and beer tanks. It trailed the Port of Duluth-Superior, which includes terminals in Minnesota and Wisconsin, by 2.2 million tons. It was the largest Great Lakes port district by cargo volume in a single state and the 20th largest port in the country.
The Southern Indiana Port District handled 24 million tons along the Ohio River, making it the 26th largest port in the country and first among all inland ports, far ahead of the 16.4 million tons the Port of Pittsburgh handled.
“It’s extremely gratifying to see the new rankings reflect Indiana’s sizable impact on this country’s maritime commerce and the importance of our ports,” said Gov. Eric Holcomb. “As governor of Indiana, my mission is to increase Indiana’s global competitiveness and our ports play a critical role by bringing the world to Indiana and connecting Indiana to the world. I am grateful to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its ongoing efforts to modernize cargo data collection and recognize the significance of our ports.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Navigation and Civil Works Decision Support Center did the rankings based on tonnage shipping in 2021. It reclassified Indiana's ports on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River as north and south districts so they now reflect the full extent of shipments.
“This is the culmination of a decade-long effort to ensure Indiana’s robust maritime shipping industry is properly recognized on a national level,” said Ports of Indiana CEO Jody Peacock. “Indiana ranks 12th in the nation for waterborne shipping but we have never had any ports ranked among the national leaders until now. These rankings now fully recognize how much cargo is shipped through Indiana and elevate the ability of our ports to compete for new business, grant funding and global opportunities for Indiana.”
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