Transit Bottlenecks Derail Grain Exports

Despite Bumper Crops, Much Of U.S. Harvest Is Slow To Market Due To Weak Infrastructure

(AP)  The AAR and farm industry groups are backing legislation that would offer tax credits for investments in freight rail expansion.

Barges floating down the Mississippi have long been a cheaper shipping alternative for farmers who aren't landlocked. But the barge traffic is hampered by Depression-era locks and dams.

A modern sized barge tow is typically 1,100-feet long - but the locks they must pass through are roughly half that length. The means the barges must split in two to get through, with the back half waiting for the first half to make the passage before rejoining it on the other side.

The delays add about 50 hours of travel time along the upper stretch of the Mississippi, said Corps Manager Scott Whitney. The barges must burn fuel and pay workers as they wait, racking up an estimated $725.6 million in extra costs along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers between 1996 and 2005.

Congress authorized the Army Corps last year to update locks and dams along the Mississippi. But Congress must approve funding for the project, which is estimated to cost $2.21 billion over more than 20 years.

One of the tightest bottlenecks happens at busy U.S. ports, where crops are loaded onto oceangoing vessels.

Over the years, exporters have increasingly shipped grain by renting empty containers that brought consumer goods to the United States from overseas markets like China. But as those imports have fallen, exports are having to wait longer, and pay more, to find space on outward-bound vessels, said Jansky, the grain trader in Portland.

Jansky said the cost of renting a 20-foot container has risen 70 percent, to about $3,400 in the last 10 months alone.

"All of the sudden, grains are starting to have to pave their own way," he said. "All of the sudden, we're grabbing for vessels now."

[runningralph]

It just doesn''t work that way, pal. Prices are set by the demand. No sets the price on corn, oil or other commodities. The price is whatever someone is willing to pay. Futures traders can drive the price up if they demand more. Traders can also lose money and cause the collapse of a market.

[lewiston14]

Here is a good idea. Everybody else does not have a problem raising the price of oil when it suits them. Make our export grains 3 times more expensive. I can live without oil for a long time. Try that with with bread and water. Play in there own game. Better yet keep the grain here in the US