Erie's Port Sees Cargo Volume Grow as Great Lakes Shipping Shifts

Cargo volume moving through the Port of Erie rose 17 percent last year, port authority officials say, as manufacturers across northwestern Pennsylvania and southern New York looked for cheaper alternatives to long-haul trucking and congested rail lines.

The increase is modest in absolute terms compared to major coastal ports, but port officials describe it as a meaningful shift for a Great Lakes facility that spent much of the last two decades handling mostly bulk aggregate and salt.

"We're starting to see containerized freight that would have gone through Cleveland or Buffalo five years ago," the port's executive director said. "Cost is the whole story. Once trucking rates crossed a certain threshold, water started to make sense again for the right cargo."

Local manufacturers of heavy equipment and specialty steel products account for much of the new volume. The port authority has approved a modest capital plan to add crane capacity, though officials stopped short of announcing a major expansion, citing uncertainty about how durable the shift in shipping economics will prove.