Grain Equipment Is Recovering

The key equipment needed to load U.S. grain on ships for export through New Orleans-area ports is more than halfway to recovering from damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, officials said Wednesday.

Land-based and floating grain elevators near the mouth of the Mississippi River could handle 63% as much grain by Wednesday as they could before the hurricane, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Officials cautioned that reaching that level would require normal barge traffic on the river, a full workforce and free-flowing ocean departures -- none of which yet exist. But they said the ability of six out of the 10 land-based elevators to operate at reduced capacity was a good sign.

River and ocean traffic remains jammed and may not be cleared before the peak of the fall harvest in a few weeks, said Deb Seidel, a spokeswoman for Bunge North America, a major soybean processor.

Officials said two sunken objects, probably barges, will have to be removed before the biggest ships are allowed back on the river, which handles more than half of U.S. grain exports. Grain doesn’t need specialized equipment, beyond the elevators, for loading and unloading.