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INSIGHTS apart. It left the port with a big problem, because that had

Tell us about your business mix at the port.

been the solution for the dredge material. The idea was to Like most of the primary Great Lakes ports, we are an take it all for the next 20 or 30 years, form up this new land international business, seaway business, and then we have mass, and we get this nice solution to dredging, where to the domestic side. And the growth opportunities, as far as put dredge material, and we get a modern, new port, we we’re concerned, are more on the international side. The can move the port over there and we free up all this lake- industries that are served domestically – steel industry, front land. It sounded good, but it was going to be a really construction – really aren’t the demand. It’s just we don’t expensive project and nobody knew how to pay for it. Now, see demand ramping up for iron ore at the integrated mill we’ve really got the dredging problem very close to solved. here, or for stone going into construction. That’s more of a

We immediately put to bed this notion of moving the port, protection mode – preservation mode. Let’s make sure we and we have come through a very long process with the dredge, let’s make sure nothing happens that threatens the

Army Corps that included some litigation by the State of continued movement of the domestic commodities that

Ohio and the port. The Corps – in the middle of our big are important, but they’re not going to grow a lot. It would planning process – decided that the sediments were clean be nice if they did, but the economic impact of moving enough to just put out in the open waters of Lake Erie. The those bulk commodities just isn’t as high as moving a con- state of Ohio said no, we adamantly disagree. And then tainer or higher value cargo.

that matter got litigated in federal court and the court, es-

What’s the biggest project underway right now at the Port?

sentially to make a long story short said, ‘We’re not going to decide this on technical grounds, but the State has the The Cleveland Europe Express – that’s our headline ser- authority under the Clean Water Act to make a decision.’ vice. Our carrier is the Amsterdam-based Spliethoff Group.

So we’ve come through all that and we’ve got a solution – They’ve been our partner from the beginning. Nobody had we actually put about 50 percent of the material, and more cracked the container market here in the Great Lakes for over time, into bene