Rail delays prompt Cliffs Natural Resources to truck taconite

Cliffs Natural Resources has announced it will load 100 trucks every day to send iron ore pellets from Hibbing Taconite to the Duluth-Superior harbor because of continuing delays in shipping by rail.

Company officials said the truck deliveries to Superior, Wisconsin, are needed for about two months to ensure that steel mills on the lower Great Lakes have enough pellets to stay open.

"While efforts are underway to secure improved rail service and address the backlog of pellets at Hibbing Taconite and other taconite operations affected by rail service problems, Cliffs needs to take immediate steps to fulfill its commitment to supply iron ore pellets to its customers," said Lourenco Goncalves, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer.

The action comes after months of rail delays that also have affected farmers in Minnesota trying to ship grain. Minnesota Power has idled four electric generators because the Duluth-based utility can't get enough coal.

Shippers try to move as much taconite as possible before the shipping season closes in mid-January, said Adele Yorde, spokeswoman for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.

"All of the fleet operators, all of the taconite facilities, know that the clock is running to get the pellets to the lower lakes, to the steel mills so that they can fill their stockpiles for those two months that the Great Lakes will be closed over the winter," Yorde said.

Last month U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar testified at a Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee hearing that Iron Range mines "have more than two million tons of taconite pellets stockpiled as a result of poor rail service."