The Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon handled a record 6.8 million tons of goods in 2017, marking the third consecutive year the port has handled more than 6 million tons and giving it a three-year average that’s 60 percent higher than prior to 2015.
Before 2015, the port handled more than 5 million tons a year only once.
Over the past three years, the port has shipped more than 19 million tons. In December 2017 it handled more cargo in a month than any other in the port’s history.
“This port provides critical intermodal connections for the agriculture, energy and manufacturing sectors,” Phil Wilzbacher, port director for the Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon, said. “Barge and rail shipments of coal, ethanol, and various agricultural products increased significantly in 2017, especially in the last two months of the year. The last three years have produced the three highest total shipments in this port’s 41-year history and that is a tribute to our port companies’ continuing efforts to develop new markets and leverage the competitive advantage this port offers intermodal shippers.”
The port is on the Ohio River and supports 7,000 jobs and generates $1 billion annually to the state’s economy.
In 2017, the commodities with the largest increases were fertilizer, minerals, ethanol, and coal.