The high price of steel has put a hold on building new barges.
Tom Torretti, director of bulk sales and logistics for Consolidated Grain and Barge Company is based in St. Louis. He says, “Today a new barge with covers costs $900,000 to 1 million bucks. We are not going to be building any barges at that value because we can’t make the number work.”
He tells Brownfield this isn’t an immediate issue but could be a problem if steel prices remain high.
