http://news.yahoo.com/rock-clearing-begins-drought-hit-mississippi-river-232345746--sector.html
Rock clearing begins on drought-hit Mississippi River
By Karl Plume | Reuters – Tue, Dec 18, 2012
(Reuters) - The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers on Tuesday began clearing rocks from a shallow stretch of the drought-hit Mississippi River - its largest such undertaking in at least 25 years - to maintain the flow of billions of dollars' worth of goods to Gulf Coast ports.
A shipping superhighway that links much of the central United States to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi is near record-low levels due to the worst U.S. drought since 1956.
Using a fleet of excavators and barges with extensions that allow the vessels to 'stand' on the river bed, the Corps began its task of removing 900 cubic yards of limestone stretching over six miles nearThebes, Illinois.
The work, which could take a month to 45 days, is expected to hamper the movement of barges carrying grain from production centers to export terminals at the U.S. Gulf as well as upriver shipments of fertilizer, coal and road salt.
"Right now they're removing rocks through mechanical means using spud barges and excavators," saidArmy Corps spokesman Mike Petersen, referring to barges with 'legs.'
"They also have a piece of equipment called a hydrohammer, basically a huge aquatic jackhammer, to break up bigger chunks of rock for excavation."
"The water is so low right now that an excavator can reach down to the very bottom and knock these rock pinnacles down. They've had a lot of success with that and it also reduces the timeline and the cost," he told Reuters by telephone.
The next phase of the excavation would involve the use of explosives to break up the rocks along that stretch.
The low water level on the Mississippi River after this year's devastating dry spell was exacerbated by the Corps' decision to reduce by even more than usual the amount of water that flows into the waterway from the Missouri River. The Corps reduces the Missouri River flow every autumn.
The move raised protests from Midwestern governors and senators who urged President Barack Obama to rescind the decision for fear that badly needed income would be lost through the disruption of commerce that flows through the river.
The Army Corps on Monday projected "no significant interruption in navigation" in a briefing to members of the agriculture industry and elected officials, including U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber's No. 2 ranking Democrat.
The excavation work that began on Tuesday would close the Mississippi River near Thebes for 16 hours a day to barges heading south to the U.S. Gulf and northwards after emptying their cargoes at export terminals.
River traffic will be allowed to transit the six-mile work zone each night, but a backlog of barges was beginning to form.
LINE 'EM UP
A queue of 14 southbound barge tows and three northbound tows, each containing about 15 barges with a 1,500-ton capacity, were waiting on Tuesday afternoon to pass through the area, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said. He said 13 northbound vessels moved through the stretch on Monday night and southbound traffic will be allowed to pass on Tuesday night.
"You're lucky to get two barge tows through per hour. If we can get the entire southbound queue through tonight it will be a big accomplishment," said Coast Guard spokesman Colin Fogarty.
The stretch near Thebes was once known as Little Chain of Rocks, a smaller version of a treacherous area of the river north of St. Louis known as Chain of Rocks which vessels now bypass via a canal constructed in the 1940s and 1950s.
The rock-removal project was prioritized this year as the Mississippi River approached record-low levels and threatened to halt river navigation, especially along a 200-mile stretch between St Louis and Cairo, Illinois.
Exporters stepped up shipments of grain and soybeans to the Gulf Coast before water levels fell to critically low levels, forcing barges to take on lighter loads. They also resorted to loading more of their goods on rail cars.
The disruption of river traffic due to low water has rallied export prices for grain, especially soybeans that are in strong demand from buyers like China. The United States will remain the primary global supplier of soybeans until the harvest in South American powerhouses Brazil and Argentina early next year.
GROWMARK, an agricultural cooperative, is evaluating daily its costs to use the river to ship grains to the U.S. Gulf and fertilizer north to the Midwest farm belt.
There is an "economic threshold" at which low water levels would raise costs for river shipping so high that it would be less expensive to transport products by truck or rail, said Chuck Spencer, GROWMARK's director of government affairs.
"We know that if we're going to have any waterborne commerce that, in the short term, we're going to have to put up with this construction time frame" at Thebes, Spencer said.
Storms moving through the U.S. Plains and Midwest are poised to add a few inches of water to the river, according to river forecasts by the National Weather Service, possibly delaying what many believed would be an effective end to navigation in late December.
The Mississippi River at St. Louis on Monday was forecast to recede by nearly two feet by the end of the month, but as of Tuesday morning the forecast showed a 1-1/2 foot drop.
The Waterways Council, a river shipping industry group, initially expected the river would be effectively closed by December 10 due to low water.
But recent rains as well as steps by the Army Corps to release water from Carlyle Lake, a southern Illinois reservoir, have pushed back the forecast to about January 10, said Debra Colbert, senior vice president of the Waterways Council.
"At least we'll be able to get some barges past but it's still a significant disruption."
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http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/latest/Weak-basis-bids-Mississippi-River-concerns-weigh-on-corn-market-183975701.html
News that China had cancelled sales commitments of 300,000 tonnes of U.S. soybean sales sent the Chicago bean market sharply lower Tuesday morning. As one would expect the grain markets also reacted poorly to the news, especially since they have recently suffered from perceptions of weak export demand as well. Weak basis bids and persistent concerns about low Mississippi River levels also seemed to weigh on the corn market. Improved South American weather, which bodes well for their forthcoming crops, may also be weighing upon U.S. prices. March corn had fallen 5 1/4 cents to $7.18 3/4 by late morning, whereas the December 2013 contract slipped just one cent to $6.21/bushel.
China reportedly cancelled prior purchases of 300,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans overnight, as did the buyer of 120,000 tonnes previously headed to an unknown destination. That news more than offset a report of a fresh 110,000-tonne sale to another unknown buyer. This news probably caught the market off guard, since prices had recently been rising. We wonder if they have decided they now own enough beans to meet their short-term needs and will start looking to South America for their mid-2013 requirements. Given their position as a huge player in the soybean and product markets, speculation about their likely activities could greatly influence the Chicago market for the foreseeable future. January beans dove 19 1/4 cents to $14.69 per bushel in Tuesday morning trading, while January oil was down 0.58 to 49.21 cents/pound and January meal had fallen $7.4 to $447.5/ton.
The wheat market also fell substantially in reaction to early morning news that China had cancelled 300,000 tonnes of U.S. soybean purchases. Indeed, given the fact that wheat futures had fallen in six of the last seven trading sessions, one could easily argue that it might set to move sharply lower, especially if the March CBOT contract fell below the psychologically important $8.00/bushel level. However, after testing technical support in that area, the markets turned decisively higher, thereby suggesting prices have fallen enough lately to attract renewed buying interest. We are not sure wheat futures are being affected by the storm sweeping into the Central Plains, since the weather maps look as if most of the anticipated snow will fall northeast of most winter wheat areas. March CBOT wheat had rebounded 5 1/4 cents to $8.08/bushel by late morning; March KCBT wheat rose 4 1/4 cents to $8.60 1/2 and March MGE futures bounced 7 3/4 to $9.04 per bushel.
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