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Nothing new about the dock in the local newspaper or in northtown

Anybody local see anything going on there?
Maintenance, for sale signs?
Just wondering.
Retired rom Esky wintering in AZ.....

[quote="garbear"][quote="Old CCI Guy"]I had heard that when Cliff's bought US Steel out of the Tilden Mine earlier this year, that was step one in their logistics plan.
Step two would be the Escanaba Dock.
As a previous poster stated, they may be setting up for the HBI plant coming online in Toledo in 2020.[/quote]

Thought that ore was supposed to come from the Mesabi Range.[/quote]

From Cliff's website:
The location will allow our plant to receive our iron ore pellets produced in Michigan and Minnesota, similar to how we currently supply our existing blast furnace customers.
From:
http://www.clevelandcliffs.com/English/about-us/operations/ToledoOHHBIPlant/default.aspx

[quote="Old CCI Guy"]I had heard that when Cliff's bought US Steel out of the Tilden Mine earlier this year, that was step one in their logistics plan.
Step two would be the Escanaba Dock.
As a previous poster stated, they may be setting up for the HBI plant coming online in Toledo in 2020.[/quote]

Thought that ore was supposed to come from the Mesabi Range.

I had heard that when Cliff's bought US Steel out of the Tilden Mine earlier this year, that was step one in their logistics plan.
Step two would be the Escanaba Dock.
As a previous poster stated, they may be setting up for the HBI plant coming online in Toledo in 2020.

That would be great news, but probably unlikely. Escanaba was the only dock that was accessible late and early, I would think that it's operation had/has an impact on the steel making economy.

Loading in Escanaba definitely is a big plus. Cliffs Michigan operations could bypass the locks with Escanaba.

This would be great news for the area economy.
Back in the day, the yard had a stockpile over a mile long.
No shortage of storage in Esky.

This could make sense because Esky can ship year round and have large yard to stock pellets.

CN's track between Ladysmith and Prentice as well as between Rheinlander and Goodman have been out of service for years so the shortest rail route between Superior and Escanaba goes through Neenah and Green Bay. And as JFB said, the line through Neenah already has a ton of intermodal and merchandise traffic.

If Cliffs is contemplating a purchase of the Escanaba dock, I would think it would be more likely so that they can shut down the antiquated dock in Marquette. Its biggest issue is the track spacing is so narrow that they have to use non standard narrow ore cars built (or modified) just for that dock. Plus it can't load footers.



Wisconsin Rail Map [u][url]http://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/travel/rail/railmap.pdf[/url][/u]

Seems unlikely, only one Mine left on the Marquette Range, and Cliffs owns the railroad and dock at Marquette, MI. To route Pellets from Cliff's operation in Minnesota would be roundabout if from the Nashwauk or Unitac plants, and it would involve routing the trains on a route with very heavy CN traffic headed to Chicago. And if it originated at Hibbing Taconite how would BNSF react to the loss of business to their dock at Allouez? Likely to impose a rate to maintain their profits as though the Pellets were still using their dock.

Can anyone verify the rumor that Cleveland Cliffs is purchasing the Escanaba Ore Dock from CN?
Seems to make sense, with the added ore that will be need for their new plant in Toledo, and not have to shut down shipments when the Soo Locks close.
Train tracks already in place from Marquette and Minnesota.
Also a deep dock that can handle footers.