A U.S. inland system of lakes could surprise many as it appears to hold some major possibilities when it comes to ways to help solve the ongoing supply chain issues plaguing the country amid growing inflation.
The U.S. Great Lakes are a handful of freshwater bodies that make up a system of lakes along the U.S.- Canada border that are connected to the Atlantic Ocean.
David Gutheil, chief commercial officer at the Port of Cleveland, said, “We’re getting a lot more calls from people, shippers, cargo owners, that typically wouldn’t want to consider using a smaller, inland port to move their cargo.”
The BBC reported that a Dutch shipping company decided to add an additional shipping vessel for its Antwerp, Belgium to Cleveland, Ohio route because of increased demand. And another ship last November traveled from Cleveland to Shanghai in China. The trip lasted 40 days and bypassed major ports in California.
A major waterway making it possible is the St. Lawrence Seaway, impressively stretching from the Atlantic Ocean into the Great Lakes. It moved 38.19 million metric tons of goods or cargo, delivering it to ports in Canada and the U.S. last year, and has maintained that as a yearly average, apart from dips during the height of the pandemic.
