Motor Carriers Enjoy Windfall From Surging U.S. Steel Demand

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urging demand for domestic steel is pushing more loads onto motor carriers that haul those products, industry officials and analysts say, as steel-reliant industries facing tight deadlines and limited supplies turn to trucks for quicker shipments than rail can provide.

Typically, railroads mainly haul steel and its raw materials — scrap, ore and coking coal for fuel — and observers said a boom now under way in additional trucking hauls probably was temporary.

But for now, with demand for fast deliveries surging from steel mills and end users such as appliance or auto manufacturers, “it’s a definite sea change,” Lee Clair, senior partner of Norbridge Inc., an Illinois transportation consulting firm, said in an interview.

“All of the growth and increase in the market has been accommodated by truck,” he said.

For the full story, see the March 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.