Ports of Indiana

Indiana is withdrawing from purchasing land for a fourth port. This comes three years after an agreement to potentially purchase the land was first signed.

The Ports of Indiana entered into an agreement in 2017 to reserve the option to buy up to 725 acres near Lawrenceburg, just west of the Indiana-Ohio state line.

Indiana's ports authority has landed a more than $545,000 federal grant for a planned steel barge shuttle that officials say will boost steel coil shipments at the states Ohio River port in Jeffersonville.

The Ports of Indiana have become the nation's first inland waterway system to secure a national designation that honors the adoption of environmental best practices.

The two Ohio River ports at Mount Vernon and Jeffersonville and the Lake Michigan port at Burns Harbor handled 14.8 million tons of cargo last year.

Indiana currently operates Ohio River ports in Jeffersonville and Mount Vernon and a Lake Michigan port at Burns Harbor.

While the numbers have been showing positive results over the past years, the focus is already on how to keep setting unprecedented numbers.

In part one of a three-part series, we visit Indiana's Lake Michigan port facility to see how it's secured its place in the global steel supply chain.

The state's three ports together handled 11.3 million tons of cargo last year.

The increase is due in part to grain and coal exports - the kind that could see major changes under Trump administration trade reforms.