Containers depart Port of Duluth in historic shipment
There was some positive shipping news out of Duluth last month when 200 containers of Chippewa Valley Bean kidney beans left the Port of Duluth-Superior bound for Europe.
It was the first shipment of containers out of the Lake Superior port since last fall’s announcement that it would be able to begin importing and exporting containers, becoming the second U.S. port on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway, after Cleveland, with that capability.
The shipment also was significant because it represented a solution to the supply chain crisis that has congested west- and east-coast ports and caused delays in getting on-time shipments to overseas customers.
“This is really a saving grace for us,” said Cindy Brown, president of Chippewa Valley Bean, during a May 27 media event in Duluth.
The genesis for this particular shipping solution took place during the Transportation Go! conference, which was held March 3-4 in Milwaukee. There, attendees learned more about Duluth’s new container capacity, along with other opportunities for shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway.
In an email, Brown, whose company joined SSGA after Transportation Go!, said: “We learned a lot at the Transportation Go! conference. We realized that there were opportunities on the Great Lakes, shipping first out of Cleveland and out of Duluth over the weekend. We also gained valuable contacts within the Surface Transportation Board. (We) were very pleased with the takeaways from the event. …
“The organization that connected all the dots for us was Nexyst360. We’ve worked with them for a couple of years on a closed-loop service with their containers. We intended to purchase containers this fall to ship raw kidney beans from growers’ fields to our plant. (They) listened to our shipping concerns and suggested that we buy the containers now and then helped us put the system together utilizing the port of Duluth.”
Nexyst360, also an SSGA member, is a supply chain solution company that provides “smart” shipping containers crafted to ensure quality, traceability, sustainability, market access and mobility.
Al Dutcher of Realm5, which recently acquired Nextyst360, said Transportation Go! was “a good catalyst” for the Duluth shipment.
“It was quite the team effort,” he said. “You had all the people there together, and that got the conversation going.”
Jonathan Lamb, president of Lake Superior Warehousing Co., which operates the Clure Terminal is partners with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority as Duluth Cargo Connect, said during the Duluth media event that signs point to more shippers using the Great Lakes for container shipping.
“There is a tremendous opportunity here,” said Lamb, who was a speaker during Transportation Go!, “The market is looking for alternatives in a world that has lots of challenges from the standpoint of logistics and supply chain.”
The goal of Transportation Go! besides focusing on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, was to connect ag shipping industry in the Upper Midwest and find real solutions to some of the supply chain problems that have plagued exporters over the last two years.
Plans for the 2023 Transportation Go! are underway. Look for an announcement of a date and location soon.
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/business/port-of-duluth-celebrates-historic-shipment
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