Ingram investing $50 million in St. Louis to enhance cargo handling
Ingram Marine Group, the largest barge operator on the inland waterways, announced plans to invest $50 million in upgrading its barge-loading and grain-handling facilities in the St. Louis area.
The company focuses on moving bulk and break-bulk commodities, including fertilizer, steel and grain exports, to the Gulf of America. With its acquisition of SCF in February 2024, Ingram also picked up fleeting and barge maintenance services, expanding its workforce in the St. Louis region to about 200.
Dan Lester, senior vice president of business development at Ingram Infrastructure Group, made the announcement as part of a virtual panel session moderated by Mary Lamie, executive vice president of Multimodal Enterprises for Bi-State Development, for the FreightWeekSTL, an event presented each year by the St. Louis Regional Freightway.
Ingram is set to invest the nearly $50 million in the St. Louis region over the next three years, Lester said. Key projects include the expansion of the Municipal River Terminal on the riverfront just north of downtown St. Louis, which will feature one of the largest and most efficient barge-to-rail direct transfer systems focused on fertilizer crop nutrients supporting farmers throughout the Midwest. Additionally, the company is rebuilding the Tyler Street terminal just south of the MRT to more efficiently handle export bulk materials.
Lester emphasized the importance of the St. Louis region to Ingram’s operations and said the area has been a hub for the company’s barge line for a long time.
“St. Louis is a key growth area for the infrastructure group. We have eight landside terminals on the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River here,” Lester said.
On the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, Ingram is developing another rail-to-barge facility to support grain and grain byproducts. The projects are funded through a combination of private funds and a public BUILD grant as Ingram works with various agencies to deliver them, including the St. Louis Port Authority and America’s Central Port.
Emissions reductions
The company is also committed to sustainability and reducing emissions.
“We have made strategic investments in companies producing alternative fuels, and we anticipate that in the next three to five years, we will be powering our fleet with some percentage of alternative fuel,” Lester said.
Ingram has also invested in new material handling equipment and replaced older locomotives with newer, more efficient units. Recognizing that the company is operating in an area with non-attainment for air quality, Ingram’s air emissions capture rate has been enhanced, which will positively impact the region’s air quality. Lester mentioned dust-capturing equipment and lower-emission Sennebogen shore cranes replacing older equipment. Older locomotives are also being replaced with cleaner-burning engines.
As the discussion turned to opportunities for increased movement of cargo between the Port of New Orleans and the Ag Coast of America, Lester highlighted the strategic advantages of the St. Louis region, including its connectivity between various modes of freight transportation.
“I think with St. Louis having such a nexus of connectivity, you have this perfect intersection of Class I Railroads, the Mississippi River, and then major highways,” Lester said. He also noted that St. Louis is the northernmost ice-free, lock-free port, providing significant opportunities for servicing shippers of ag products and grain byproducts for export markets.
“We really are, logistically speaking, in a great spot for northbound and southbound freight. That will create additional opportunities and economies of scale.” Lester said. “We can take products from St. Louis, the Midwest in general, put them into the river system and run a 40-barge tow all the way down to the Gulf. That generates a pretty significant competitive advantage for our customers, our shippers, where they can utilize the efficiency and the economies of the waterways to handle their export products.”
Lester said the return of manufacturing to North America presents additional growth opportunities for Ingram. He said that dating back to the supply-chain disruptions during COVID, customers, shippers and producers have been looking at how to use domestic transportation to create secure supply chains to support reshoring. He thinks it will create a large opportunity for an area like the St. Louis region where there is a good logistics hub and a large number of operators in the area.
“It’s great to hear that Ingram is already seeing the advantages of operating within the most efficient inland port in the nation and planning additional investments to strengthen its presence here in the St. Louis region,” Lamie said. The panel was part of FreightWeekSTL 2025, which continued through June 6.
The week-long freight and logistics event is delivered by the St. Louis Regional Freightway.
To view any of the virtual panel sessions for FreightWeekSTL 2025 as they are released, visit www.freightweekstl.com.
