Washington, D.C. - With two months left in the shipping season, U.S. ports were busy moving grain and project cargo in October. “We anticipated an increase in vessel activity and cargo tonnage into the Great Lakes Seaway System for the month of October, and we saw it,” said Betty Sutton, Administrator of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.  October traditionally signals the initial push to get cargo into and out of the Great Lakes Seaway System before the end of the navigation season.  Increases were seen in the number of international ships arriving in the System loaded with project cargo for local manufacturers in Cleveland, Toledo, and Duluth.  Those same ships left the Seaway System with shipments of grain and project cargo from Milwaukee, Duluth and Sturgeon Bay, WI. Grain has been surging through the Port of Toledo's terminals operated by ADM, The Andersons, Hansen Mueller, Kuhlman, and Mondelez International in 2015.  Shipments are up 28 percent over the same period last year at over 1.2 million tons.  "It's the best year we've had for grain shipments through Toledo since 2006," said Joe Cappel, Vice President of Business Development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. "Most folks know we export corn and soybeans from Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana from Toledo to global destinations but our total also includes imported oats and wheat from Canada. The oats are used for animal feed and much of the wheat is milled into flour.  Toledo's Mondelez facility is one of the largest flour mills in the world.  We are pleased Mondelez utilizes marine transportation at the Port of Toledo along with truck and rail in their global supply chain,” added Cappel. "Despite the recent slowdown in the global steel market, cargo volumes moving through the Port of Cleveland continue to exceed 2014 numbers,” said David Gutheil, Vice President, Maritime & Logistics.  “Through October, we were running approximately 12 percent ahead of 2014 tonnage for international cargo.  Much of this is due to new cargoes, such as steel pipe, handled by Federal Marine Terminals, and project cargoes, handled by both Federal Marine Terminals and C-Port Maritime.  The Cleveland-Europe Express has far exceeded 2014 volumes.  Although the strong dollar has weakened exports, our container volumes have increased by more than 400 percent compared with 2014, and overall tonnage is up by more than 300 percent compared with last year.  Spliethoff also recently announced a monthly service to India via Antwerp that will start in 2016, which will provide shippers with more options via the CEE.  In partnership with Spliethoff and C-Port Maritime, we are also working on plans to offer a weekly service between the Port of Cleveland and the Port of Antwerp beginning in 2016."   “Global pressures on regional markets and sustained drops in commodity pricing have impacted our entire Great Lakes shipping community throughout 2015,” said Vanta Coda, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.  “With recent trade actions, we hope to restore those tonnages next year. At times like these, ports look for those ‘good news’ stories, and for us here in Duluth that’s been the rise in breakbulk and project cargo shipments at our Clure Public Marine Terminal. Volumes are up. Traffic mix of high-value cargoes is strong. In October alone we handled components for oil processing and generators for power generation as well as wind blades exported from North Dakota to Germany. We’ll welcome at least two more salties before the end of this season and hope the surge continues well into 2016.” The St. Lawrence Seaway reported that year-to-date total cargo shipments for the period April 2 to October 31 were 27 million metric tons, down 9 percent over the same period in 2014.  U.S. grain shipments were up by 32 percent in October over last year.  The dry bulk category was up by 6 percent over 2014 with potash, stone, and gypsum in the positive column, at 32, 33, and 69 percent respectively. The general cargo category was down 10 percent. Iron ore and coal remained down in October by 12 and 37 percent respectively.  The liquid bulk category posted a downturn of 10 percent.