Butler Miller of Miller Barge in St. Louis offers up an update:
The ship channel allowing ships in and out of the Port of New Orleans is due to open Saturday September 3 for ships with a 35′ draft or less,
covering a good chunk of the vessels. ?This is very good news. ?Other
drafts will be handled on a case by case basis. ?The ships are ‘bunched’
meaning that a large number of ships are coming in at the same time.
Whether there will be barges to receive the goods is an open question,
see below. ?Exacerbating things is that the grain elevators have not
been unloading the barges though, so equipment is even tighter.My estimates of sunken equipment is looking suspect. ?As I said earlier,
good information is proving hard to come by and while fifty barges may
be missing, they may just be tossed up on a levy where they or may not
be able to have future economic life. ?It is still very early to tell
how many barges are affected.As some of you may know, this year’s harvest is not nearly as good as
last year’s. ?The drought has lowered crop yields just about across the
board. ?Barges are moving about 3% less grain this year than last. ?Last
year, it was cheaper for Northern farmers to rail their goods to the
West coast, while this year, like just about any other year, barging
grain to New Orleans has economic advantages. ?Someone asked if this equipment is insured. ?Of course, it is, but the
question is whether the ‘equipment parking lot’, a fleet, is liable for
the damages sustained or the equipment owners bear the risk because the
‘parking lot’ owners did all a person could be expected to do. ?The best
paid lawyers in the country will be fighting it out as to which
insurance company will be writing the check. ?
His First Update Is Here