Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes, long the backbone of the navigation system, fell to their lowest level in 71 years in 2009, according to information from the Lake Carriers' Association. Iron ore cargos totalled only 31,792,629 net tons, the lowest level recorded since 1938 when the trade finished the year at 21,574,573 tons.
The 2009 total also almost perfectly replicates the trade’s 1935 performance: 31,765,852 tons. The lowest total for the Lakes iron ore trade on record is 3,996,441 tons in 1932, while the peak was 107,345,783 tons in 1953.
The state of the North American steel industry determines the pace of the iron ore trade. It takes between 1.3 and 1.5 tons of iron ore to make a ton of steel. The steel industry began 2009 operating at about 35 percent of capacity. Although a number of blast furnaces restarted as the year progressed, the industry still ended 2009 with about 30 percent of its capacity idle.
Source: Businessnorth.com
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