River woes slow GC port deliveries

CHICAGO - Low river levels and back-ups at an aging lock and dam are causing havoc on export-bound grain barge shipments along the Mississippi River system just as American farmers need to be ramping up deliveries of bumper corn and soybean crops. Barge-freight rates went to a three-year high Sept. 29 as a stretch of the Mississippi fell to near-record lows, and as low water and emergency repair work on a 90-year-old lock and dam on the Ohio River, delayed dozens of tow-barges. Exporters were scrambling for the supplies to meet shipping commitments out of the Gulf Coast ports amid a growing back-up of bulk cargo ships waiting to load soybeans. (Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch 09/29/17)