New steel terminal for Chicago
Canadian National Railway and North America Stevedoring Co. said they will open a new multimodal steel transloading facility in the Port of Chicago.
The Chicago Metals & Minerals Transload Facility will be located on 190 acres of land adjacent to CN’s Kirk Yard and Interstate 90, roughly 13 miles south of downtown Chicago.
It will enable producers to move products such as steel coil, sheet, plate, bar, structural, pipe and tube products, as well as dimensional loads and heavy equipment, by rail, truck, intermodal container, inland barge and ocean-going vessel. The facility will be handle product as early as January.
Jean-Jacques Ruest, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer for CN, said the facility will give CN and NASCO “a strong foothold in the most important steel market in North America. Approximately half of steel production and consumption on the continent takes place within a 300-mile radius of Chicago.”
Denis Dupuis, founder and president of Quebec Stevedoring Co. Ltd., parent company of NASCO, said the transload operation “will have state-of-the-art machinery for quickly and efficiently transferring steel loads ' This partnership will benefit our 25-marine-terminal network beyond the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway system, enabling the growth of our steel-handling business. It could be the first stepping stone to future expansions along CN rail corridors.”
