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Over 700 barges are stuck in Bridge Crack’s Mississippi

(Bloomberg) – A crack in a bridge over the Mississippi has stranded more than 700 barges, cutting off the largest route for U.S. agricultural exports when the critical waterway is busiest. The route is closed near Memphis while the Tennessee Department of According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the transport is inspecting a large crack in a freeway bridge that spans the river. A queue has been expanded to 47 ships and 771 ships, of which 430 are going north and the rest are going south, Sergeant Carlos Galarza of the Coast Guard’s 8th District said by email on Thursday afternoon. The Mississippi is the main artery for US crop exports. Covered barges full of grain and soy swim to terminals along the Gulf of Mexico, while crude oil and imported steel also traverse sections of the waterway. A prolonged outage would disrupt deliveries from the Gulf. Corn futures fell the most under CME Group’s rules, in part on speculation that exports would support. “The river is the jugular artery for the Midwest export market for both corn and beans,” said Colin Hulse, senior risk management consultant at StoneX in Kansas City. “The length of the blockage is important. If they can’t move quickly, that’s a big deal. If it slows down or restricts movement for an extended period of time, it can also be a big deal. “The disruption along the Mississippi is the latest disaster that has turned the natural resource world upside down in recent weeks. As early as March, the Suez Canal was blocked by a huge container ship that was stuck sideways in the vital waterway for almost a week and paralyzed worldwide shipping. And late last week, a cyberattack stalled the largest fuel pipeline in the US for five days, causing widespread gasoline shortages from Florida to Virginia. A lengthy stop on the Mississippi could put further strain on the crop markets, where soybeans and corn futures hit multi-year highs amid adverse weather in Latin America and a buying frenzy from China. Corn futures fell by the conversion limit of 40 cents, or 5.6%, to $ 6.7475 a bushel in Chicago on Thursday. To work around this problem, traders could theoretically also send some deliveries on trains and reroute them to ports along the northwestern northwestern United States. Few buyers of grain and soybeans bid for barges north of the river closure as it was not certain when shipping would resume. The crack-stopping vehicle and waterway traffic is in the framework of the Interstate 40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge, which was found during a routine inspection. Department spokeswoman Nichole Lawrence said via email Thursday morning, according to a statement from the Tennessee Department of Transportation on Tuesday, “The timetable is still undetermined” for the reopening of the waterway. The Army Corp of Engineers could find a way to keep car traffic closed, according to Josh Spoores, analyst with the CRU Group, water traffic is slated to resume under the bridge. This can cause bottlenecks, but most consumers who have waited months for supplies to be shipped are likely fine with some additional delays. The New Orleans port region moved 47% of water-based agricultural exports in 2017, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The bulk of these exports consisted of bulk and bulk materials such as corn, soybeans, animal feed, and rice. The region also supports a significant amount of edible oil exports such as soybean and corn oils, and attracted as much as 13% of US exports of frozen water-based poultry in 2017. Some traders speculated that based on previous experience, the river may be partially open to restrictions on movement while repairs are in progress. “I don’t think this is a big deal for river traffic as it is a short-term disruption,” said Stephen Nicholson, senior grain and oilseed analyst at Rabobank. “The good news is that most of the fertilizer has already made its way upstream and soybean exports are at their lowest point. However, corn exports continue to be strong, so there may be a slight delay in reaching corn ships in New Orleans. Moving much volume onto the rail can be difficult for exporters as trains can be unloaded outside of the New Orleans area, according to Curt Strubhar, vice chairman and risk management advisor at Advance Trading Inc., the number of rail unloaders is south of the problem limited The proportion of rail discharges is also significantly higher. “According to Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, about 84% of the agricultural goods that flowed on ships north of Memphis was corn and about 13% was soybeans. Overall, corn and soybean shipments for the week ending May 8th were 18% higher than a year ago. The Port of St. Louis at the Growmark Agricultural Cooperative, which sends corn and soybeans south to New Orleans for export mainly to China, and receives fertilizer, will do so, Friday is likely Friday, according to Matt Lurkins, general manager of the company’s grain division over. “The freight was already tight,” Lurkins said in a telephone interview. “Then this species sent us over the edge.” If the hiatus drags on, Growmark could send more grain to processors instead of loading it onto barges for export. Small amounts of crude oil and partly refined oil are shipped by barge up the river as well. In February, according to the government, 2.85 million barrels were transported by barge and tanker from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. The import of steel on barges will be delayed as long as traffic is stopped. According to Cicero Machado, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie, about 25% of imported steel flows through at least one section of the Mississippi. However, Alabama said newly arriving foreign steel could be diverted to rail vehicles or trucks at ports in New Orleans or Mobile, Alabama. The river is also a major artery for steel shipments in the US, and delays could become a problem for automakers in the South who depend on high-strength steels that will be made in the Midwest? “Machado said.” The problem isn’t in the river, it’s on a bridge over the river. Maybe they’ll find a way to manage the traffic there. “(Adds Coast Guard update in second paragraph.) For more articles like Please visit us at bloomberg.com. Sign up now to step with the most trusted business news source to keep. © 2021 Bloomberg LP

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