By Gene Linn, AJOTMassive bulk shipments of industrial and construction raw materials and grain still are the bread and butter of Great Lakes shipping. But growing shipments of breakbulk cargoes add an increasingly tasty helping of jam. “Breakbulk certainly is a key opportunity for the port,” said Adolph Ojard, chief executive officer of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. “We see renewed interest in breakbulk in the Great Lakes in freight like paper pulp, lumber and primary metals. It’s a nice offset to iron ore, coal and other bulk shipments.” That is not to say that bulk cargoes will soon lose their leading role. About 85% of the 41.7 million tons shipped to the port of Duluth in 2005 consisted of iron ore and coal. Grain and other commodities made up most of the remainder. The American flag fleet in the Great Lakes focuses virtually entirely on bulk cargo. Three main commodities - iron ore, coal and limestone - made up 94% of 2005’s total traffic of 107.7 million tons. Breakbulk freight now comes almost exclusively from ocean-going ships that ply the St. Lawrence Seaway. One hot cargo sector is pipe for new pipelines being constructed in the MidWest, according to Ojard. “There are three or four pipelines under construction,” he said, “and some pipe comes through Great Lakes ports to be distributed.” The future for major pipeline projects looks good, too. One example of growth in the sector was the long-term agreement signed in April to build a $13-million, 28-mile pipeline to supply natural gas for the Chicago market. Kinder Morgan Inc. agreed to construct the pipeline with The People’s Gas Light and Coke Company. Kinder-Morgan spokesman Rick Rainey said the company could not go into detail about some other planned projects. But Scott Parker, president of the company’s Natural Gas Pipeline group, said in a recent statement that Kinder-Morgan is spending about $148 million on pipeline and storage expansion initiatives. Energy is a common theme for the burgeoning Great Lakes breakbulk industry. “A lot of shipments are tied into development of the Canadian tar sands,” said Ojard. Vast tar sand deposits in Canada, also called oil sands, contain large supplies of oil that are just beginning to be tapped. Late last year the Port of Duluth handled its biggest heavy-lift cargo ever, an 805-ton “hydro cracker” reactor from Japan. The huge machine arrived on Rotterdam-based Jumbo’s vessel, Stellaprima, and was placed on the world’s largest capacity railcar. It was carried on Westinghouse’s 36-axle Schnable rail car to the Long Lake Upgrader oil sands project in Northern Alberta, operated by OPTI Canada. A week earlier, another Jumbo ship delivered 14 heat exchangers and two reactors for Canadian oil sands projects. Turning to another energy sector, Ojard said, “We see a lot of activity in wind turbines and wind energy generation. It looks like a growth market.” Turbines are shipped from Europe to Duluth and trucked to job sites in southern Minnesota, North Dakota and other locations. New wind studies have identified other promising sites in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Iowa, according to Ojard. Prospects are also promising for shipments of equipment and supplies for industrial projects. “We’re looking at major facilities under design,” Ojard said. For example, an iron nugget facility may be built in Minnesota in a year or two, and a new mini steel mill is on the drawing boards. Paper pulp mills already in operation in the Great Lakes area are considering new sources of raw materials from around Lake Superior to be shipped through the Port of Duluth, Ojard said. One intriguing plan under review is to ship pulp and paper to lower Great Lakes ports such as Cleveland, to be sent to distribution centers closer to end consumers on the East Coast. “It does make sense,” Ojard said. Such plans will benefit from a trend to higher land-based transportation costs, partly due to higher fuel prices, he said. “With increasing costs on the land side, we may see a shift