Governor Eric Holcomb kicked off the first-ever Indiana Container Shipping Conference and Intermodal Rail Tour on Monday as business, agriculture, and transportation leaders discussed ways to develop new container ports, grow agriculture exports and expand global trade. Container shipping capacity has been identified as a key objective to support Indiana’s economic and agricultural growth, which led to the creation of this event hosted by Ports of Indiana, Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC).
“I commend Indiana’s statewide agricultural sector and port leaders for convening this important discussion about growing Indiana’s global trade by expanding our international container shipping opportunities,” said Gov. Holcomb. “Our state has a proud Ag based heritage and an equally exciting future, led by specialized soybeans, corn and hardwood products that are coveted throughout world markets. Leveraging all our port, rail and transportation resources to expand our container shipping connections will strengthen our economy and create even more opportunities for Hoosier farmers, businesses and families.”
The conference included a tour of Indiana Rail Road’s Senate Avenue Intermodal Yard and speakers from International Feed, S&P Global, POET, Pence Group, Cole Hardwood, Cargo Services, Indiana Rail Road, ISA, ICMC, and Ports of Indiana.
“Improving our infrastructure to support local containers terminals can provide Hoosier farmers with access to overseas customers,” said Courtney Kingery, CEO of the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC). “Indiana corn and soybean farmers produce premium, value-added products but often lack easy access to international container facilities that offer efficient shipments of identity-preserved commodities to world markets,”
The development of shipping containers with standard dimensions supports efficient transport of a variety of goods in truck-sized containers. Standard containers are generally 8-feet wide, 8.5-feet tall and 20 or 40-feet long, with larger sizes available. Global standardization allows ocean vessels to stack and carry more than 20,000 containers per voyage to multiple countries around the world.
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