Ports of Indiana - Burns Harbor experience spike in project cargoes thanks to massive green technology shipments.By Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTThe Ports of Indiana - Burns Harbor recently announced that it had handled ten times the project cargo in 2010 than it did the previous year. This remarkable figure is attributable to its handling of several large wind farm construction projects and particularly one, destined for Bloomington, Ill., which brought eleven shiploads of windmill components to the port. It is impossible to say at this point whether the port can continue this year on the same project cargo growth vector. But last year’s story does testify to the importance of the emerging clean energy sector and its significance to driving more project activity to the port. “We’ve saw a major increase in wind technology shipments last year,” said Jody Peacock, the port’s director of corporate affairs. “The project which brought in eleven shiploads to the port was the largest in the port’s 40-year history. The port also handled its first outgoing shipment of wind equipment last year as two ships of turbines from the Acciona Windpower plant in Iowa were exported through the port to Nova Scotia.” The port handled several other significant project cargoes last year, including components for a major tank farm in northwest Indiana and a 388-ton electrical transformer which was delivered to a power plant in Illinois. “The transformer was the single largest piece of cargo ever handled through the port,” said Peacock. The Ports of Indiana - Burns Harbor is located 18 miles southeast of Chicago on Lake Michigan. The port boasts facilities which include four berths, over 200,000 square feet of warehouse space, 27 acres of open storage, and an on-site customs office. Project cargo represents one of the major cargo segments handled by the port which also include steel, bulk cargoes, forest products, and breakbulk cargoes. The port services ocean vessels, barges, and lake vessels and is served by the Norfolk Southern and Indiana Harbor Belt railroads. The port also has access to Interstate Highways 65, 80, 90, and 94. The eleven-shipload project, which was completed late in the year and included 134 complete turbine units, was carried by eleven ships from Canada Steamship Lines and Flinter Shipping from various locations around the Great Lakes. “The components originated from several manufacturers at several different locations and were stockpiled around the Great Lakes and then shipped to Burns Harbor,” Peacock explained. The project represented a partnership among several transportation and logistics providers in addition to the port and its terminal operator. The shipment was coordinated by Vectora Transportation and were stored throughout the port on about 20 acres. The shipments were unloaded by port terminal operator, Federal Marine Terminals, with a labor force from the International Longshoremen’s Association and the International Union of Operating Engineers. Vectora Transportation is a Chicago-based third-party logistics provider specializing in the handling and transportation of wind energy components and other dimensional cargo. Vectora offers expertise in the shipment of project and other oversize cargo via rail. “Our objective is to reduce costs by moving cargo by the most economical and efficient mode of transport, utilizing rail whenever possible,” said company president Chris Ball. Canada Steamship Lines carried five of the eleven shiploads of wind turbine components. Vectora contracted CSL to deliver the components. “The deal is the result of some great teamwork between CSL’s marketing and technical operations departments,” said Ball. “It also demonstrates the company’s capacity to think outside the box.” The shiploads broke previous records for single shipments of wind turbine equipment carried on the Great Lakes. “Apart from the nature of the renewable energy equipment itself, the shipments had the added environmental benefit of being shipped by water,” s