The winds of trade are nearly as unpredictable as the winds of nature. Today they are stirring up new global business opportunities for North Dakota through the Port of Duluth-Superior.

And it is the wind, literally, that is serving as the primary catalyst.

Our communities have a long history of trade: As early as the 1870s, grain began moving on the Northern Pacific Railway from the Dakota Territory to the Port of Duluth-Superior and then east throughout the Great Lakes. This connection is still strong today, as a thriving new world trade opportunity has appeared: developing the use of giant wind turbines to produce clean, renewable energy. Access to the Great Lakes Seaway is a key to the success of this new development.

The remarkable growth in renewable wind energy farms throughout the Great Plains has created an armada of ships carrying foreign-built wind turbine components (they’re too large to handle any other way). This new trade is important in itself, but for the grain trade of the Northern Plains, wind turbine traffic has meant more vessels available at reasonable rates that desire “backhauls.” In other words, an inbound payload enables the vessel operator to offer more competitive outbound rates to the grain shipper, reducing costs and improving efficiencies for all.

The current shipping season has been an exceptionally good one for trade both to and from North Dakota. Happily, many of the ships booked to carry North Dakota grain out of the Port of Duluth-Superior arrived at the harbor loaded with giant wind turbine components destined for North Dakota wind farms. But we were in for a surprise.

There was an interesting twist, one of those vagaries of international trade. Several ships bringing wind turbine components from Spain were not looking for the traditional backhaul of North Dakota grain — they actually loaded large wind turbine blades manufactured in Grand Forks for transport back to Spain.

Although it may sound like “carrying coals to Newcastle,” there are good reasons for this seemingly uneconomical turnaround. The Grand Forks blades, which are being installed on Spanish turbines for Spain’s domestic use, are meeting critical supply needs in that country.

We also currently have a Fargo manufacturer making huge wind turbine tower bases for a customer in Buffalo, N.Y., and because these sections exceed the highway load limits in some Eastern states, the units are being shipped out of the Port of Duluth by domestic barge.

Such is the nature of trade, especially in the maritime industry. Commodity markets, cargo types, carriage rates, fuel costs and a host of issues are forever in flux. In the maritime transportation industry we never know what is likely to be our next important cargo, but like the customers we serve, to stay competitive we must always be positioned to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. There is a saying in transportation: “Cargo is like water: it flows along the path of least resistance.”

The Port of Duluth-Superior and North Dakota are linked not only by geography and history; more than ever before we also see economic ties between our regions growing. As world trade increases and import/export markets develop far from our shores, finding new ways to capitalize on our current momentum is essential. Next year a new company will begin offering container service between Halifax and Montreal and possibly several ports within the Great Lakes. Could it be that we will see scheduled container service from the Port of Duluth? Could we see North Dakota specialty grains providing the critical volume necessary to support this development? Only time will tell, but there are things we can do to position ourselves to capitalize on the current environment and to promote our long-term success.

It is essential that we strengthen regional public/private collaboration and cooperation to develop an integrated transportation system with sufficient volume to influence transportation costs. Some possibilities we should consider:

Establishing a “high, wide and heavy haul truck corridor” across northern Minnesota and North Dakota (or at the very least, establishing common weight standards as well as streamlined oversized-truck permitting).

Developing a regional intermodal/transload facility (to promote competitive pricing by our major railroads, the Great Lakes maritime industry and regional trucking interests).

Creating cooperative systems to bundle and consolidate freight (thereby creating new business opportunities to take advantage of volume discounts for rail and ship transport both domestically and internationally).

Affiliating with our universities and the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, a federally sponsored center managed by the University of Minnesota Duluth and the University of Wisconsin-Superior, for a joint study of regional transportation issues and opportunities.

The economic vitality of our region is dependent on reliable, efficient, low cost transportation corridors that are sensitive to new markets and global trading patterns.

This summer and fall, a whole lot of North Dakota has passed through the Port of Duluth-Superior; it has been a great season. A bountiful harvest in the Upper Midwest has offset poor wheat crops in Europe, Russia and Australia. Drought in other regions of the globe created a frenzy of North Dakota grain exports through the Duluth-Superior Port — more, in fact, than we have seen for years.

And, a new awareness of the importance of renewable energy resources has helped build a whole new market supporting both agriculture and manufacturing (one complementing the other). However, all of this prosperity is possible only because of our unique regional transportation systems.

We need to remember that to harness the winds of change in a global marketplace requires a sophisticated and integrated transportation infrastructure. Such a transportation system is largely intact, but it is one we can improve on to position ourselves for future opportunity. That attractive prospect has an unmistakable appeal, especially when the wind seems to be blowing in our direction.