Arkansas River tonnage up almost 11% in 2023

Arkansas River tonnage was up more than 16% in December, which helped push total tonnage shipped in 2023 up almost 11% compared with 2022, according to numbers posted Thursday (Jan. 11) by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

Tonnage shipped on the river in 2023 totaled 12.208 million, up 10.9% compared with 11.011 million in 2022. Shipments of sand, gravel, rock and chemical fertilizers helped drive the 2023 gains.

Inbound shipments – those coming from off the river system – totaled 4.491 million tons during 2023, up 30% compared with 2022. Outbound shipments totaled 4.175 million tons, up 6% compared with 2022. Internal shipments – those sent between port operations on the river – totaled 3.542 million tons, down 1% compared with 2022.

December tonnage of 1.032 million tons was up 16.4% compared with December 2022. The December increase was driven primarily by a 97% increase in minerals and building materials shipments and a 26.6% gain in sand, gravel, rock shipments.

Bryan Day, executive director of the Port of Little Rock, said the port handled 434 barges and 669,327 tons in 2023, up from the 430 barges and 649,000 tons in 2022. He said the major commodities moving through the central Arkansas facility were steel coils, rock, sand, and bauxite. Day also said he is “projecting slow, but steady growth in 2024.”

Marty Shell, president of Van Buren-based Five Rivers Distribution and a member of the Arkansas Waterways Commission, said activity at his port operations in Van Buren and the Port of Fort Smith was “fair” but “hard” during 2023.

“2023 was a hard year, but we are positive for 2024 with slow growth and predicting an upturn in the sectors that struggled last year. Hopefully new tonnage will find its way to the river with the new infrastructure investments that are being made,” Shell said.

Following are the top five shipment categories by tonnage in 2023, with the percentage change from 2022.
• Sand, gravel, rock: 4.061 million tons (up 2%)
• Chemical fertilizer: 2.669 million tons (up 29%)
• Iron & steel: 1.24 million tons (up 9%)
• Minerals and building materials: 1.062 million tons (up 56%)
• Wheat: 823,052 tons (down 13%)

TONNAGE HISTORY, RIVER INFO
Tonnage in 2022 totaled 11.011 million tons, up 2.94% compared with 2021. Inbound shipments – those coming from off the river system – totaled 3.463 million tons during 2022, down 12.1% compared with the same period in 2021. Outbound shipments totaled 3.957 million tons, up 16.6% compared with 2021. Internal shipments – those sent between port operations on the river – totaled 3.591 million tons, up 6.8% compared with 2021.

River traffic in recent years has struggled through historic flooding and an economic slowdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. River tonnage in 2019 totaled just 8.48 million tons, down 22% from 2018. But tonnage was up 22% in 2020 to 10.322 million tons

The Arkansas River system is 445 miles long and stretches from the confluence of the Mississippi River to the Port of Catoosa near Tulsa, Okla. The controlled waterway has 18 locks and dams, with 13 in Arkansas and five in Oklahoma. The river also has five commercial ports: Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Fort Smith, Muskogee, Okla., and the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma.