Arkansas River commercial tonnage down in the 2026 first quarter
by April 10, 2026 11:13 am 412 views
Employees with Five Rivers Distribution work to unload a barge at the Port of Van Buren.
Declines in the major categories of products shipped on the Arkansas River pushed commercial tonnage down more than 2% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. The decline follows an almost 20% tonnage decline in 2025.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers reported 2.951 million tons shipped on the river in the first quarter, down 2.6% compared with 3.031 million in the first quarter of 2025. March tonnage totaled 1.143 million, down 6% compared with 1.218 million in March 2026.
Inbound shipments in the first quarter totaled 1.044 million tons, down 0.9% compared with the same period in 2025. The period had 945,606 tons in outbound shipments, down 20% compared with the same period in 2025. Internal shipments – those sent between port operations on the river – totaled 961,442 tons in the first two months, up 21% compared with the same period in 2025.
Following are the top categories of products shipped on the river in the first quarter of 2026, with the percentage change from the same period in 2025.
• Sand, gravel, rock: 1.006 million tons (down 6%)
• Chemical fertilizer: 637,400 tons (down 5%)
• Soybeans: 301,622 tons (down 4%)
• Iron and Steel: 250,020 (down 7%)
• Minerals and building materials: 182,800 tons (up 20%)
TONNAGE HISTORY, RIVER INFO
River shipments totaled 10.011 million tons in 2025, down 19.5% compared with 12.446 million tons in 2024, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Inbound shipments in 2025 – those coming from off the river system – totaled 3.461 million tons, down 8.75% compared with the same period in 2024. Outbound shipments totaled 3.455 million tons, down 27.5% compared with the same period in 2024. Internal shipments – those sent between port operations on the river – totaled 3.094 million tons, down 20.3%.
Not counting the historic flooding of 2019 that halted river shipping for months, 2025 river tonnage was the lowest in the past 10 years. Following are the past 10 years of tonnage numbers, according to the Corps.
2025: 10.011 million
2024: 12.446 million
2023: 12.206 million
2022: 11.011 million
2021: 10.696 million
2020: 10.322 million
2019: 8.48 million
2018: 10.932 million
2017: 11.918 million
2016: 11.542 million
The Arkansas River system – McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) – 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.