Market News & Headlines >> Flooding Closing Upper Mississippi to Barge Traffic

All barge traffic will be halted along a long stretch of the Upper Mississippi River for several weeks due to flooding caused by the melting of a record winter snowpack in the upper Midwest, USDA said on Thursday in its weekly Grain Transportation report.

All locks and dams above Lock 17 - near New Boston, Illinois - will be closed for the next three weeks, and no freight is being accepted along the Twin Cities and mid-Mississippi portions of the river, USDA said in its weekly transportation report.  Also, around May 5, locks and dams as far south as Lock 22 near Saverton, Missouri may be forced to close and stay closed for about two weeks due to high water.

The closures and slower-than-normal export sales have depressed barge freight rates, USDA said. The low barge rates may lead some companies to reduce the number of barges they have in service.

The closures will force grain and fertilizer shippers to find alternative, potentially more costly, transportation by truck or rail, freight experts told Reuters News Service. Though it is not a busy export period for the U.S., the closures will affect the delivery of any remaining soybeans or grain for the export market, said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition.

However, the biggest worry right now is over fertilizer input shipments headed into the Midwest. "It's those shipments that are concerning, and will have to be diverted off the river and moved north on rail or by truck," Steenhoek said.