Burns Harbor welcomes first international vessel for 2025
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The Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor celebrated the opening of the 2025 international shipping season by welcoming the arrival of its first ocean vessel of the year.
The M.V. Pile, a bulk carrier arrived at the northwest Indiana port on Friday after sailing from the Netherlands 19 days earlier.
To mark the occasion, Port Director Ryan McCoy presented the “Steel Stein” to Captain Janusz Szatanik. The stein commemorates northwest Indiana’s identity as “The Steel Capital of North America,” the port authority said.
“We look forward to this day every year,” McCoy said in a news release. “It’s fun to share a little Hoosier Hospitality with the crew and present the Steel Stein, but most importantly, it signals to our global trade partners that Burns Harbor is open for business. It’s also a day celebrated by our skilled crane operators, dockworkers and port employees, who make their livelihood through hard work that boosts the Indiana economy every day.”
The vessel, built in 2024, delivered 8,300 metric tons of specialized steel products that will be used by local manufacturers.
Indiana’s three ports—Burns Harbor, Jeffersonville and Mount Vernon—handled 13 million tons of cargo in 2024, up 3% from the previous year. In Burns Harbor more than 50% of the cargo that travels through is steel-related.