Grains Drive Export/Import Swap at Burns Harbor
![Grains Drive Export/Import Swap at Burns Harbor](https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/8902611_G.jpg)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFor the first time in "many months," exports at the Port of Indiana-Burns Harbor through the St. Lawrence Seaway exceeded imports. Port Director Rick Heimann says grains and other bulk products heading to Canada helped drive an increase.
In September, officials with the Ports of Indiana and the state detailed an "intensifying" collaboration with shipping partners in the Province of Québec. Efforts are aimed at boosting economic development among the ports and their stakeholders.
Heimann says "Québec is a key trading partner for us because that region serves as a gateway to the Great Lakes in a similar way that our port serves as a gateway to the U.S. Midwest and the extensive inland waterway system. Grain from Midwestern farms can be shipped on Great Lakes vessels from our port to Québec and loaded onto larger ocean vessels for trans-Atlantic shipments. Developing these types of regional partnerships is vital to realizing the full potential of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System."
The Great Lakes Seaway Partnership says cargo shipments along the St. Lawrence Seaway, which connects northwest Indiana and Québec, were down nearly 11 percent through the current season, compared to the same period a year earlier. A bright spot has been U.S. grain shipments, which were up by 11 percent last month over last year.