ATLANTIC NORTHEAST
RAILS & PORTS
operating railroads + ports, intermodal facilities, & government environment
14 December 2015
The article is based on a telephone interview with Josh Hunter, sales manager of Mid-American Salt, based in Fort Wayne. In 2015, Mid-American became a tenant at ProvPort.
Company History
Mid-American Salt was established in Fort Wayne in 2012 as a road salt provider, sourcing product from the major salt companies and supplying it to regional users. During the winter of 2013-2014, as a young salt company it was not getting adequate service from the mining companies. In seeking their own supply, company officials being ambitious looked at “the whole picture” including overseas sources. In Morocco, they found a deep mine owned by Societe de Sel Mohammedia (SSM).
Agreement with SSM
Mid-American, said Hunter, and SSM have agreed, under a long-term partnership, that Mid-American is the exclusive supplier for North America.
The Moroccan Mine & ITS Salt
According to the SSM website, the mine was established in the 1970s in Mohammedia, north of Casablanca on the Atlantic coast, with four billion tonnes of reserves. By 2013 it had extracted over four million tonnes using the “room and pillar” deep mining method. SSM can mine more than one million tonnes per year. {SSM website}
The mine operation has received its ISO 9001 certificate, Hunter said.
Salt quality
Per the Mid-American website, ‘SSM Rock Salt is manufactured in compliance with ASTM Specification D632-01 Type 1, Grade 1.’ The spec requires purity of 95%, while SSM salt is 97.89 – 99.50% pure, “of the highest quality,” Hunter emphasized.
SSM’s website notes its use for:
Water softening. Via ion exchange.
Industry. SSM is the exclusive producer and supplier of dry rock salt to the chlor-alkali industries in Morocco, for the production of caustic soda, plastics such as polyvinylchloride (PVC), and more than 14,000 other uses.
Animal nutrition
Deicing. Hunter said the salt far exceeds the industry requirement. It is the purest and driest deep-mined salt available.
Moroccan terminals
SSM was using the Mohammedia port, which can accept vessels to 6,000 tonnes. By using Casablanca [see photo] it can load much larger vessels. Mid-America charters its ships.
US uses
Hunter noted that he is supplying customers in addition to those wanting bulk road salt. Mid-American supplies industrial customers in each of its three markets.
Moreover, Mid-American has its own ice-melt, “Hot Rock.” In several US locations, it owns and operates packaging facilities supplying Hot Rock to local stores for retail customers.
In Providence and elsewhere, it is selling raw material to local packaging companies.
Transportation, Areas Served
In Casablanca, SSM is loading a ship “almost around the clock,” said Hunter. His website shows three North American markets. “Each location presents a different possibility” for a combination of different uses of the Moroccan salt. Because of the quality of the salt, some of the uses “are not driven solely by price,” unlike road salt.
Quality of service
In New England, said Hunter, in our first year we approached commercial customers “who were yearning for quality. We were welcomed with open arms, because they know they will get salt from the same mine with the same quality.”
Moreover, “we do not oversell our piles.” Customers will get the quantity they ordered.
East coast
Mid-American is now supplying Providence and Searsport. “Throughout New England we bid a lot, won a large portion, and beat out the typical supplier.”
Hunter said Mid-American won over 50 towns.
Great Lakes
During the winter 20142015, “we were the largest importer to the Great Lakes,” Hunter said.
[The company started as a regional supplier in Indiana, and in 2013-2014 found itself resorting to a market priority list, first serving state DOTs, then cities and counties, followed by commercial contractors. Mark Thiele, Mid-American’s vicepresident, said in 2014: “The challenge for 2014/15 is securing the salt,” Thiele said. “North American salt is simply not available for that third tier. We’ve been working hard since March to find knowledgeable logistics partners to help us handle the logistics. The St. Lawrence Seaway has become a valuable resource to us. We are bringing eight vessels into the Great Lakes, coming into several ports. That salt is landing in a terminal and has to be moved to many different locations.” {Julia Kuzeljevich in Canadian Shipper 4.Feb.15}]
Hunter noted that his company had a contract for 170,000 tonnes with Ohio DOT.
River system
Mid-American sends large ships to New Orleans, which are lightered into 2000-ton capacity barges for travel upriver to the Red, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers as well as up the Mississippi to its last navigable point in Minneapolis.
Providence Arrival: The Pipeline
Along the East coast, all salt terminals are supplied by overseas salt, mostly from mines in Chile. Now the Moroccan mine can also supply the region, which will “stratify the supply.” The ability of SSM to supply up to a million tonnes a year should end any shortages. “No ‘salt today, but none tomorrow’” as Hunter put it.
Moreover, with a 10-day sailing time, large supply, and the ability to load very large vessels, MidAmerican has created in essence a “salt pipeline.” This should end the volatility of salt prices: “they will stagnate.”
By analogy, the lack of a propane pipeline for New England has led to extreme price volatility as the demand ebbs and flows.
Providence handling
[Mid-American has chartered a 45,000-ton vessel to ship the salt, which arrives at Berth Six, is stockpiled at the port, and trucked to clients in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Hunter said the company chose Providence because of its location and facilities. It has invested $100,000 in a commercial scale on its leased site. {Mary MacDonald in Providence Business News 31.Oct.15]
No Rail At This Point
Mid-American does not use rail at this time; all of its customers lie within 100 miles of a marine terminal. However, said Hunter, if his company bids on salt contracts in, say, Vermont which could be supplied from Providence, he would investigate rail delivery. {ANR&P discussion 14.Dec.15}