Earlier this month, Market Matters noted the news that the Missouri River will have a "normal" navigation season for the first time in several years, and we talked about how that was unlikely to mean grain would move by barge. Here's a little more on that story.
The blog (July 8, "Commercial Navigation on the Mighty Mo") drew comments from Doug Bonderer, whose Brunswick, Missouri company, AGRIServices has tow boats on the river, and William Beacom, a longtime towboat captain and advocate for commercial river shipping interests.
Bonderer said his boats are moving barges with fertilizer to Brunswick, and are also moving alfalfa pellets from Consolidated Blenders at Blair to Alabama, and he's also loading grain at Nebraska City.
Barges can't be loaded quite as heavy as on the Mississippi, Bonderer said, so when they have fertilizer loaded at the Gulf, they have them load it a little lighter. "That's still better than transferring it to rail" at St. Louis to bring it on up, he told me.
Costs on the Missouri per mile are probably a little higher than on the Mississippi, but that depends on traffic. Ideally, a tow will come in with 6 loads, unload and come back out with another cargo, but sometimes there have to be some empties -- but the more business, the cheaper the per-mile costs, Bonderer said.
With barge business slower this year on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, barge companies are looking for opportunities, so there is interest in the Missouri shipping, he added.
Sounding very optimistic, Captain Bill Beacom told me it will take a while for shipping to get on its feet on the Missouri, but there is "profit to be made."
Referring to a daily boat report from the Corps of Engineers, Beacom said there are four tows going on a regular basis, one hauling fertilizer and grain, three involved in construction.
"When people watch the successful movement" of these tows, Beacom said he expects business to pick up. These companies "wouldn't do it if it's not viable! They aren't doing it as an exercise," Beacom said. The deeper drafts have helped, he explained. "It was a money-loser at 7.5 feet, but they are loading at least 8.5 feet and some 9 feet now."
