Great Lakes Limestone Trade Down in June
Shipments of limestone on the Great Lakes total 7,952,201 tons through June, a decrease of 14.7 percent compared to the same point in 2013. The decrease is even slightly larger when compared to the trade’s long-term average through June: 16.2 percent.
Loadings out of U.S. quarries stand at 6.8 million tons through the second quarter, a decrease of 15.7 percent. Shipments from Canadian quarries total 1.1 million tons, a decrease of 8.6 percent.
The totals are testimony to the effects of the brutal winter of 2013/2014. The ice conditions were such that only one limestone cargo had moved by April 15. A number of the lower-horsepower river class vessels that serve the limestone trade had to delay their sailings well into April because of heavy ice.
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