What Freight Experts Are Saying
Experts are scrambling to find solutions around the supply chain and shipping container industry. One of which is events held by the St. Louis Region Freightways attract experts such as Jim McNichols, the executive director of the Jefferson County Port Authority. People like McNichols want to push a series of projects on the Mississippi River. However, there are challenges to such projects.
The Supply Chain Support Projects
Jim McNichols explains that the “long list of projects along the St. Louis region’s riverways–aims to attract investment and boost volumes of freight shipped on the Mississippi River. In Jefferson County, for instance, public funding is fueling a push to pursue a more than 1,000-acre “mega site” that repurposes old industrial sites “that have fallen out of productive use.” Many states have repurposed old industrial sites, chemical plants, and other facilities to push production. Yet, the Mississippi has one flaw in using it for a supply chain boost. The locks and dams on this river were built nearly a century ago; thus, they must be repaired before there is an increase in the already 175 million tons of freight that travel the river daily.
The Mississippi River Infrastructure
It’s a matter of “when,” not “if” there is a failure in the Mississippi River infrastructure. For example, twenty-nine locks and dams stretch from Minneapolis to Granite City, Illinois. With the development of manufacturing and agriculture since the beginning of the 20th century, droughts and low water in the upper Mississippi make it impossible to move freight.
What a Mississippi River Makeover Might Mean
Currently, many funding opportunities exist to create a more sound infrastructure on the river.
According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, “There’s an urgency to upgrade the facilities, including an old Doe Run Co. site, by the end of 2025–to receive new, specialized vessels that will carry cargo in shipping containers to and from the Gulf of Mexico. The new liners are larger and faster than traditional river barges. Still, they cannot get through the lock system that begins just north of St. Louis–meaning their loads will need to be dropped off somewhere in the region before continuing onward.” Thus, experts genuinely believe a project like this could solve a plethora of supply chain problems in the U.S. Need to solve some supply chain issues yourself? Are you looking for obsolete electronics or hard-to-find parts? Do you want to collaborate with a supplier who can help you solve all of this and more? Get in touch with us today. At PCX, we have over 25 million parts totaling over 500 billion in stock at our OEM/CEM partner’s shelves and distribution partners globally. If we can’t find it, it doesn’t exist