Activity at LR Port drops in September

The Port of Little Rock worked 29 barges and handled 44,000 tons of cargo in September, a steep drop in activity compared with the same month a year ago.

In September 2019, the Arkansas River port worked 60 barges and handled 90,000 tons of cargo, which port officials at the time called a record for any September in the port’s history.

The poor numbers for September also left port activity down 33% year over year. Through the first nine months of 2020, the port worked 286 barges and handled 434,000 tons of cargo. Through the same period a year ago, the numbers were 429 barges and 655,000 tons, respectively.

It “has been quite a challenging year but we are optimistic that activity levels will resume to near normal levels in the first quarter of 2021,” Bryan Day, the port’s executive director, said in a report to the port’s board.

Cargo on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, of which the port is a part, totaled 7.7 million tons through the first nine months of 2020, a 30% increase over the same period a year ago, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.