(Green Bay, Wis.) – After a strong start to the shipping season for the Port of Green Bay, tonnage tapered off in July with just less than 170,000 tons of cargo moving through the Port last month. For the 2020 shipping season, which began in mid-March, 907,697 tons of cargo has gone through the Port of Green Bay, down about 10% from a year ago.
“Through June we were pretty much on pace with last year, which was a very good year for the Port of Green Bay,” said Dean Haen, Port Director. “The decline in July was primarily due to drops in imports of petroleum products and salt.”
June saw nearly 50,000 tons of domestic petroleum products inported to the Port. That dropped to less than 9,000 tons in July. Salt imports accounted for more than 106,000 tons in June, while there were no salt shipments in July. On a positive note, cement imports are up 28% from the same period in 2019 and wood pulp and forest produsts are up 24% year-to-date.
“This has certainly been a difficult year to accurately forecast shipping levels,” Haen added. “The impact of COVID-19 is being felt throughout the Great Lakes and beyond. But we remain cautiously optimistic for a good finish for the remainder of the 2020 shipping season.”
So far in 2020, 76 vessels have visited the Port of Green Bay, the same number as last year at this time.
