Indiana corn and soybean producers have a major piece of their grain-marketing infrastructure back in operation.
Louis Dreyfus Company officially reopened the Burns Harbor grain terminal at the Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor in Portage on Wednesday, Sept. 30, restoring a critical Lake Michigan gateway that can connect grain from Indiana farms to customers across North America and around the world.
The facility had been closed since 2023. Now, under LDC’s operation, the terminal is once again receiving corn, soybeans and wheat from local producers and providing farmers with another avenue to move grain into domestic and international markets.
For Indiana farmers, the reopening comes at an important time.
Harvest logistics can quickly become a bottleneck when large volumes of corn and soybeans move to market at the same time. The Burns Harbor terminal adds substantial storage, transportation and export capacity to the region, giving grain producers and elevators another option for moving crops when local storage fills or traditional transportation channels become constrained.
“Strengthening connections from farm to market” is how LDC described the significance of the reopening.
7.2 Million Bushels of Storage
The Burns Harbor facility has the capacity to store 7.2 million bushels of grain, providing significant additional space for crops moving through the region.
The terminal also has infrastructure capable of handling up to 200 railcars and 20 barges, creating a multimodal transportation network that can move grain by truck, rail, barge and vessel.
That flexibility is particularly important for Indiana producers.
Corn and soybeans arriving by truck from farms and country elevators can be consolidated at the terminal and then moved efficiently by rail, barge or Great Lakes vessel toward their ultimate destination. The facility can load as much as 90,000 bushels per hour into an ocean vessel or Great Lakes laker and unload a unit train at a rate of approximately 30,000 bushels per hour.
The result is a grain-marketing hub designed to keep crops moving even when one transportation mode becomes congested.
A New Outlet for Indiana Corn and Soybeans
The terminal’s location on the southern shore of Lake Michigan gives Indiana farmers access to a unique combination of transportation systems.
Burns Harbor connects the region to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, while also providing access to the nation’s inland river system and an extensive network of railroads serving the greater Chicago market.
That connectivity can translate into more marketing opportunities for Indiana growers.
Instead of relying exclusively on nearby ethanol plants, feed mills, processors, elevators or traditional river terminals, farmers and grain merchandisers now have another potential destination for their crops.
That additional outlet can become especially valuable during harvest, when local elevators and on-farm storage can face capacity constraints.
It also puts Indiana grain closer to international markets.
Over the decades, the Burns Harbor facility has already played a significant role in moving Midwestern grain. Since opening in 1979, the terminal exported more than 500 million bushels of corn and soybeans before its closure in 2023.
LDC expects the revitalized facility to once again become an important link between regional farmers and global customers.
The company previously indicated it expected to purchase as much as $70 million worth of crops annually, further increasing the potential economic impact for farmers and agribusinesses throughout the region.
LDC Investment Restarts the Terminal
Ports of Indiana selected LDC last year to reopen and operate the facility. The company previously announced plans to invest $18 million to restart the terminal, although LDC has not provided an updated investment figure.
The original terminal was built by Cargill in 1979.
LDC said the facility now employs 11 commercial and operational employees, compared with an earlier projection of approximately 13 new jobs when the reopening was announced.
The reopening represents an expansion of LDC’s already significant presence in Indiana.
The Netherlands-based agricultural commodities company has operated in the United States since 1909 and operates the country’s largest fully integrated soybean crushing and biodiesel facility near Claypool in Kosciusko County.
Its return to Burns Harbor also gives LDC a strategic position for merchandising grain throughout the Midwest while connecting those supplies to its global trading network.
More Competition, More Connectivity
For Indiana farmers, the value of Burns Harbor goes beyond simply having another place to deliver grain.
A functioning export terminal creates another buyer and another transportation pathway at a time when producers are navigating volatile commodity markets, elevated production costs and intense competition for transportation.
Greater competition among grain buyers can potentially strengthen basis opportunities, while additional transportation options can help reduce the risk that a single bottleneck prevents farmers from getting their crops to market.
The terminal also gives Indiana agriculture a direct connection to one of the world’s largest commercial transportation networks.
At full capacity, Burns Harbor can simultaneously handle grain arriving from local farms by truck, receive large quantities by rail and move grain onto vessels for export.
Ports of Indiana has described it as one of the few locations in the Midwest where an ocean vessel can be loaded with as much as 1 million bushels of corn while an 85-car unit train and hundreds of trucks can be handled at the same time.
That kind of scale matters.
For farmers, grain marketing is not simply about what a bushel is worth at the elevator. It is also about how efficiently that bushel can get from the farm to the customer.
A Gateway Back to the World
The reopening of Burns Harbor restores a major piece of Indiana’s agricultural infrastructure at a time when access to reliable markets has never been more important.
For corn and soybean producers across northern and central Indiana, the terminal provides another potential outlet during harvest and beyond. For grain merchandisers, it offers expanded storage and multimodal transportation options. And for Indiana agriculture as a whole, it strengthens the state’s connection to domestic and international buyers.
After three years of being closed, the Burns Harbor grain terminal is once again moving Indiana grain toward the marketplace.
And for Hoosier farmers, that means another door is open to the world.
