Shipments through the Port of Duluth/Superior are up this season for two important Minnesota commodities. The Seaway Port Authority’s Adele Yorde says iron ore shipments increased six percent through November. She says it’s “good to see some employment back on the Iron Range, and I think… it buoyed a lot of people’s spirits here in the Twin Ports.” And Yorde says grain shipments so far this season are 24 percent above the five-year average. “It bodes well for the agricultural commodities, for the farmers in northeastern North Dakota [and] northwestern Minnesota,” she says. “They raised large crops of very good quality wheat this year.”
But not so good news for another major commodity: Coal shipments through Duluth/Superior are down 23 percent.