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Summer breeze ABOVE: A contender for the 2025 title of most frequent oceangoing visitor to Duluth, the Asian Spirit carried wind energy blades to the Duluth Cargo Connect facilities on June 3, with an escort from the pilot vessel Sea Bear and a Great Lakes Towing Company tugboat. In the background, the Viking Octantis and Vista Star passenger vessels rest along the new DECC dock wall. 4 | NORTH STAR PORT | SUMMER 2025 PHOTO / Adam Bjornberg SEASON UPDATE AILING TO AND FROM D U L U T H - S U P E R I O R against headwinds of uncer- tainty, vessels collectively came and went with less during the spring and early summer. Through June 30, 2025, total water- borne tonnage trailed last year's pace by 6.8%, narrowly topping 9 million short tons at the Head of the Lakes. Iron ore registered the biggest drop by tonnage, sinking more than 500,000 tons year over year. Dips in Canadian shipments (down 384,000 tons) and domestic shipments (down 206,000 tons) more than offset an 89,000-ton gain in overseas exports, as North American mills drew down existing stockpiles and supplemented with imported blast furnace feed and scrap metal. U.S. steel mills pushed output to near three-year highs in June, with capability utilization rates stabilizing close to 79%, but those encouraging ripples have yet to reach Lake Superior loading docks. Grain tonnage, while less than 1% below the 2024 pace, posted an espe- cially dubious June, as only one ship- ment departed the port. Those 22,320 tons of Italy-bound spring wheat marked the smallest June throughput for Duluth- Superior in the St. Law- rence Seaway Era. Just a few weeks after that shipment's departure from its terminal, CHS announced a closure of the Superior grain facility, the Twin Ports' largest by capacity. S