Farmers exploring ways to GoM

Midwest soybean farmers, facing global marketplace challenges, are exploring containerized shipping on inland waterways as a more viable way to get products to export facilities near the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Those farmers are showing interest in a new vessel design that would allow the transport of shipping containers throughout the inland waterways’ system. American Patriot Holdings of Miami has been testing two self-propelled container vessel design concepts for use on the Mississippi River. It’s been designed for the non-locking segments of the river, and its tributaries, and would transport up to 2,375 TEUs between Plaquemines (La.) Port Harbor and Terminal District - the complex on the Lower Mississippi River closest to the Gulf of Mexico - and Memphis and St. Louis. The liner would be able to travel at 13 mph upriver, compared to a traditional barge flotilla that would move at between four and five mph, a study concluded. At 13 mph, the round-trip from Plaquemines Parish to Memphis would be six days, and 10 days round trip to St. Louis. (Source: Work Boat 11/12/18)