Transport on the Mississippi River could be problematic this year, affecting barge shipping, including for soyabeans.
Shipping via barges along the Mississippi River is vital not only to the transportation industry but also to the wider US economy, according to a FreightWaves report on 29 March.
For example, more than 60% of soyabeans were transported via the waterway by the USA, a leading world soyabean producer and exporter.
An unusually warm and dry winter – which allowed the Upper Mississippi River shipping season to begin earlier than usual this year – could lead to drought conditions in key areas of the Mississippi River Basin over the coming months, FreightWaves wrote.
“Of growing concern will be the potentially low flows on the Mississippi River this summer into autumn due to well-below [average] snowpack and precipitation in most of the Northern Plains and Midwest,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Water Center director Ed Clark said in a 21 March NOAA report.
“This could have potential impacts on those navigation and commercial interests that depend on water from the Mississippi River.”
If the NOAA’s forecast was accurate, it would be the third consecutive year in which the Mississippi waterway was at risk of bottlenecks, FreightWaves wrote.
The Mississippi was impacted by extreme drought in 2022 and this was followed by further drought conditions last year which brought water levels to historic lows.
According to estimates by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a 9% year-on-year increase in US soyabean exports is expected this year although this would be 12% below the average of the previous three years.
