Pass the Salt: Markets for Grain Shipping on the Great Lakes

Abstract

We assess the structure of grain shipping within the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway system. While U.S. grain exports ship from the port of Duluth, Minnesota, Canadian grain exports ship from several ports located on the Lower St. Lawrence Seaway. While North American grain exports moving from west to east can be transported in several different ways, due to data limitations our focus in this analysis is on the so-called saltie shipping market. While our findings are somewhat unexpected, they give us some unique insight into the nature of this crucial yet understudied transportation market.