Posted on September 23, 2026
DULUTH — During the first half of the 20th century, the Port of Duluth-Superior ranked as high as second among all U.S. ports in total annual tonnage, trailing only New York City. Today, it ranks at the lower end of the top 20, according to Jayson Hron, director of communication and marketing for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
“You have the potential to bring that back. It’s going to look different in the future,” Chamber of Marine Commerce President and CEO Josh Juel said.
Juel estimates the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System is currently operating between 20%-50% capacity.
“While we compete with other ports on the Great Lakes, we also recognize that, in general, more volume moving on the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System is a rising tide that lifts all boats,” said Hron.
Duluth-Superior is the system’s inlandmost port, generating over $1.6 billion in activity and supporting 7,000 jobs. Its assets include 22 terminals and two entries.
“It’s a crucial piece of our regional economy and a key link in the North American supply chain,” said Port Authority Executive Director Kevin Beardsley during a Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Clyde Iron Works on Sept. 8.
The port’s cargo consists of 90% nonhazardous bulk materials, such as iron ore, grain, limestone, coal, salt, cement and liquid bulk. Much of the other 10% is breakbulk, including heavy-lift cargoes and wide pieces of equipment, machinery, project cargo, steel and containers.
“Waterborne shipping is efficient and sustainable,” Beardsley said. “It is the least carbon-intensive way to move cargo.”
In addition to the port’s seaway tie to the ocean for global access, it’s a multimodal hub with rail connections to western Canada and roads built for heavy-lift cargo.
“Maximizing the waterborne leg of the journey, and then using the land-based for the first and last mile is really the optimal modal mix from the standpoint of economic efficiency and environmental efficiency,” Hron said.
The upcoming Blatnik Bridge replacement will remove cargo weight restrictions, increasing freight fluidity, Hron added.
Duluth’s Clure Public Marine Terminal is the port’s only public terminal. It has more than 40 acres of laydown space and 11 ship berths, including six for heavy lift.
The terminal also offers more than 650,000 square feet of warehousing space operated by Duluth Cargo Connect, a public-private agreement between the Port Authority and Lake Superior Warehousing. The contract was renewed last year for three five-year terms.
Cargo Connect links regional cargo to 20 countries across six continents through specialized services like transatlantic liner systems.
Modernizing aging infrastructure is critical to ensuring the port can accommodate high-value project cargo in the future, Beardsley said. Significant capital investments are underway to accommodate emerging cargo types.
“We’ve invested over $50 million into our facilities and terminals, and reconstructed dock walls since 2015 to position us for long-term success,” Beardsley said.
Groundbreaking is anticipated in 2029 for a $38.3 million pier reconstruction project. In April, the Maritime Administration awarded a $27.5 million federal grant through the Port Infrastructure Development Program to fund redevelopment, including rebuilding a quarter-mile of the dock wall and tearing down a dilapidated grain elevator. The iconic gantry cranes will also see a $10 million refurbishment through federal grant funding.
The investments come at a time of transition for the port, according to Beardsley.
“Every category out there is down, but there is opportunity on the horizon, and we’re working hard to bring it in and nurture it and make it become a reality,” Beardsley said.
Commodity movements have shifted, with changes in Canadian iron ore demand and international tariffs creating volatility for terminal operators and stalling capital investment across the industry.
“Our trade war with Canada is very unsettling, and it is having an effect on our port,” Beardsley said.
While iron ore remains a primary cargo, tonnage declined by roughly 2.5 million tons last year due to changing steel-making processes and trade policies with Canada, Beardsley said.
“Anything that affects global trade affects our port,” Hron stated. Regarding the iron ore drop, he added, “There is nothing else tangible that we could see right now that we would say that is absolutely policy relevant. … We don’t know specifically where all of those shipments could have or would have gone. …We can speculate based on proximity and geography.”
Juel echoed that frustration.
“Day to day, you don’t know what’s going to happen with the administration, and frankly, with Canada’s prime minister,” Juel said. “If you’re a port, a business, a terminal operator, it makes it very challenging to say, ‘I want to invest in the future. I want to build these new facilities,’ because if you have raw materials coming in and suddenly they’re twice the cost, for example, that’s a big problem.”
Juel attributed the drop in iron ore at the Duluth port to a particular mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, that is converted from blast furnace operations to electric arc furnaces.
“Two and a half million tons — that’s a couple ships’ worth of cargo per year. It’s significant,” Juel said. “On the trade front, maybe a little less acute in Duluth.”
Coal shipments have also fallen significantly, from 22 million tons in 2008 to 4.7 million last year. Beardsley says it will be about a half million tons this year, due to the impending closure of the Superior Midwest Energy Terminal.
While some categories have declined, Beardsley pointed out emerging opportunities in renewable energy components like wind turbine blades.
“There’s still a tremendous amount of value on the types of cargo that are moving that might just not be as heavy as a shipload of iron ore,” Hron explained. “So while the tonnage number might drop, the types of cargos that move here now and in the future might be even more valuable, but just measured differently.”
