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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