Published by: Christian Willbern<>
7 Mar 2025 @ 21:03 UTC

Repairs to the Wilson Lock on the Tennessee River were halted indefinitely on Friday March 7 following the March 3 suspension of US Department of Defense Army Corps of Engineers travel cards, and sources expect this to disrupt steel raw material supply.

This is not just a North Alabama issue, this is a national issue, Cline Jones, executive director of the Tennessee River Valley Association & Tennessee-Cumberland Waterway Council, told Fastmarkets on Friday.
A fleet of Army Corps engineers based in Louisville, Kentucky, worked on the Wilson Lock reconstruction, sources told Fastmarkets.
Roughly 12 million tons of economically beneficial commerce moves through the lock each year, including raw materials such as pig iron and scrap metal, according to the Tennessee River Valley Association & Tennessee-Cumberland Waterway Council’s website.
For us, it’s going to affect at least 20,000-30,000 tons of material, a source who ships material across the Tennessee river said.
The shipping source said sellers have been shipping around the port to different terminals, where buyers will then ship the material themselves via rail or truck, albeit at a much higher cost.
As of Friday morning, shipping delays were around 15-20 days, with at least 32 vessels in queue, sources said.
There has been no received timeline for the main chamber to re-open, according to sources.