Beginning in March, Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles, or DDGs, will be able to head to new markets overseas from the Port of Milwaukee. The DeLong Company is building a new agricultural maritime export facility that will the first of its kind on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to handle DDGs.
Future service at the facility will also include the export of Wisconsin-grown soybeans, corn and other grains. DeLong Company Vice President Bo DeLong gives Mid-West Farm Report a progress report now that it’s been a year since the groundbreaking.
This development is the largest one-time investment in Port Milwaukee since the 1950s, when the St. Lawrence Seaway was being built. Port Milwaukee was one of the first nationwide grant recipients of the Port Infrastructure Development Program through the U.S. Department of Transportation. Additional facility funding has been provided by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Port Milwaukee and The DeLong Company.
The price was originally tagged at $35 million, but Vice President Bo DeLong says inflation and supply chain issues have pushed the amount up.
DeLong says the facility will open export opportunities to places like Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The expected completion date is March 2023, in time for the annual start of Port Milwaukee’s international shipping season.
Redevelopment of the property includes the demolition of out-of-date, underutilized structures and construction of upgraded mooring infrastructure. A fabric building will be erected in place of the existing structure. The transload facilities will include rail and truck gravity dump hoppers connected to a conveyance system to transport the material into the fabric building. Inside the fabric building, a reclaim system will be installed to take stored material and convey it for bulk loading into the covered bulk material cargo vessel. Vertical storage structures will also be added to handle soybeans and grain.
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