U.S.-flag Great Lakes freighters (lakers) carried 71.3 million tons of cargo in 2025, an 8.9 percent decrease from a year ago. 2025 cargo movement on the Great Lakes was 8.1 percent below the fleet’s 5-year average.
Except for salt shipments, which increased by 4.1 percent, all commodity shipments decreased in 2025. Iron ore shipments were down 10.8 percent from 2024 to 39.1 million tons. Coal cargos declined to 6.5 million tons, a decrease of 12 percent. Limestone shipments of 20.1 million tons were below last year’s shipments by 4.7 percent. Cement cargos saw a decrease of 1 percent, while sand and grain shipments were down 26.5 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively, in 2025.
U.S.-Flag Dry-Bulk Cargo Carriage on the Great Lakes | |||||||
2020-2025 and Long-Term Average | |||||||
(net tons) | |||||||
Average | |||||||
Commodity | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2020-2024 |
Iron Ore |
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Direct Shipments | 33,422,404 | 37,960,232 | 35,370,648 | 39,008,635 | 41,041,726 | 36,723,733 | 37,360,729 |
Transshipments | 3,637,614 | 3,690,957 | 2,017,176 | 3,375,654 | 2,876,166 | 2,372,408 | 3,119,513 |
Total - Iron Ore | 37,060,018 | 41,651,189 | 37,387,824 | 42,384,289 | 43,917,892 | 39,096,141 | 40,480,242 |
Coal |
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Lake Superior | 4,930,728 | 7,268,985 | 6,160,250 | 5,367,531 | 5,173,375 | 4,356,393 | 5,780,174 |
Lake Michigan | 560,057 | 827,962 | 878,467 | 803,237 | 842,896 | 1,457,199 | 782,524 |
Lake Erie | 1,764,650 | 2,255,738 | 2,262,121 | 2,230,065 | 1,318,754 | 643,912 | 1,966,266 |
Total - Coal | 7,255,435 | 10,352,685 | 9,300,838 | 8,400,833 | 7,335,025 | 6,457,504 | 8,528,963 |
Limestone | 20,694,823 | 24,141,410 | 23,704,683 | 24,631,568 | 21,062,713 | 20,071,204 | 22,847,039 |
Cement | 3,441,467 | 3,612,012 | 3,748,705 | 3,732,534 | 3,497,443 | 3,460,088 | 3,606,432 |
Salt | 866,354 | 1,162,396 | 1,230,538 | 1,158,665 | 1,225,424 | 1,276,199 | 1,128,675 |
Sand | 411,165 | 500,055 | 653,695 | 734,591 | 846,102 | 621,756 | 629,122 |
Grain | 314,849 | 366,154 | 356,503 | 314,513 | 312,345 | 271,357 | 332,873 |
Totals | 70,044,110 | 81,785,901 | 76,382,786 | 81,356,993 | 78,196,944 | 71,254,249 | 77,553,347 |