Lake Erie – one of five connected bodies of freshwater that make up the Great Lakes system along the US-Canada border – might not seem like a solution to America’s supply chain issues.
But it might just be exactly that, writes Stephen Starr for the BBC.
Connected to the Atlantic Ocean via a system of canals and locks, the Port of Cleveland is one of several Great Lakes shipping centres experiencing a revival. Last year, the total tonnage handled by the port increased by 69% from 2020. April’s tonnage numbers were double that of the same month in 2021.
“We’re getting a lot more calls from people – shippers, cargo owners – that typically wouldn’t want to consider using a smaller, inland port to move their cargo,” said David Gutheil, chief commercial officer at the port.
With major ports along the US east and west coasts struggling with cargo backlogs due to knock-on effects from supply chain issues caused by everything from China’s Covid lockdowns to Russia’s war in Ukraine, shippers are looking to long-ignored ports as a way to get supplies into and out of America.
Global shipping companies were among the first to spot the Great Lakes’ potential.
In August, a Dutch shipping company added an additional vessel to its Antwerp-Cleveland route to meet growing demand.
One ship even sailed all the way from Shanghai to Cleveland last November – a forty-day journey that bypassed major ports in southern California, Virginia and New Jersey – to avoid the backlogs plaguing those locations.
It’s not just incoming international cargo companies that are looking to the Great Lakes ports to handle their wares. The Port of Cleveland is working with a Texas-based company trucking cargo from the Gulf of Mexico up to Lake Erie – a 1,000-mile journey – to get its products shipped out to Europe.
“They can’t get vessel or container capacity down there (in Texas),” said Mr Gutheil.
While ports situated on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans dominate America’s shipping industry today, that wasn’t always the case. The Great Lakes ports once served as a crucial North American maritime highway for transporting agricultural and other bulk products such as iron ore, coal and limestone throughout the 1800s and 1900s.