During the 2021 Shipping season, the Port of Monroe saw significant cargo increases in steel coils onboard McKeil Marine vessels. The Port also worked with Interlake Steamship Company to move bottom ash and synthetic gypsum to beneficial reuse markets onboard the tug/barge Undaunted/Pere Marquette 41 & motor vessel Herbert C. Jackson.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Port of Monroe’s facilities stayed busy in 2020, buoyed by inbound wind tower components carried by the Happy River of BigLift. The towers were staged at the Port with other wind energy components and transported up to mid-Michigan for a large renewable energy project. The Calumet made a late season trip amid a snowy backdrop to take on a load of bottom ash.
The Port of Monroe exported its first cargo of synthetic gypsum on the barge Pere Marquette 41 during the 2014 season. the material and the barge, pushed by the tug Undaunted are erial that has since become a principal commodity at the Port. An inbound cargo of wind tower sections were delivered from Manitowoc, Wisconsin and the brig Niagara visited during the summer months. Several late-season salt cargoes were received with McKeil Marine later in the season.