shipping

Tell City, like many Hoosier communities along the Ohio River, relies heavily on barge traffic to fuel its local economy. An integral part of that shipping network is the Tell City River Port, where Buttigieg started his visit.

Indianapolis-based Celadon, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday morning. The company shut down all business operations, which affects all 4,000 employees.

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.

Ballast water is sometimes blamed for introducing invasive species into new waterways - like the zebra mussel, which has cost the Great Lakes region billions of dollars.

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

Indiana's truest river port is also its largest, its highest-traffic, and its most susceptible to the fallout from shifts in federal policy.

Northwest Indiana's Lake Michigan port will get nearly $10 million from the federal government for infrastructure upgrades to boost its capacity.

Indiana's three ports had their second-best start to the year ever in the first half of 2017, moving 19 percent more cargo than at the same time last year.

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.