Loading large white bags on ship in Fort Lauderdale port

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Spent a couple of days in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last week. Visited the Port of the Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. They were loading an ocean going vessel at the port with large poly or cloth bags (60 - 100 bushels per bag at least). Semi flatbed after semi flatbed came into the port each with 16 bags. The bags were not strapped down to the flatbed making me think they hadn't been transferred or filled too far away. Eight large bags at a time were lifted off of the flatbeds into the hull of the boat. This was a good size boat, but compared to a cruise ship it was small. I assume it was some kind of commodity they were loading. I told another farmer along with us that it was probably corn or beans going to another county as it wasn't far from the Continental Grain facility along the water a short distance away. He said if it was corn or beans it would be loaded with conveyors or something modern. I disagreed saying the some poor counties might still be handling imported grain this way. Can anyone provide some insight on what might have been in the large white bags? Thanks

 

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retired farmer

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Could have been drugs or illegal arms shipments.

 

D

Dalet

Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

5-6 years ago there was a company near here that was buying the clear hylium beans and filling containers with beans and trucking them to the ports. I am not aware of anyone using the supersacks for that thought. It may be some mineral like calcium carbonate or something, I doubt that feed grain would be transported in that fashion though. Too many bags.

 

J

JDB

Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

About 7 years ago a company was loading grain into shipping containers to be sent overseas

 

M

moresmoke

Well-known Member

Location

E ND

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Could have been already processed food grain ie. edible beans or similar that wouldn't want to be handled bulk too many times. Could also have been any other dry flowable material. Chemicals, plastic, starch.... They were probably warehoused nearby, might have been filled elsewhere and delivered to the port earlier.

 

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D7fever

Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

I have seen them ship limestone and similar aggregates in bags like that. They were probably tied down and unstrapped at a staging area just away from the loading area

 

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scotc

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Probably, if there was any guys in BATFE jackets running around!!!

 

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john in la

Well-known Member

Location

What part of in La do you not understand

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Could have been any one of many items shipped in bulk bags but I dought it was a grain. To much handleing.
All items going by boat are brought to a dock warehouse days in advance and stored by ship sail date so every thing is ready to go and cleared customs when the ship shows up.

 

J

Jim in Ma.

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

We get brewers grain in sacks like that.

 

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RayP(MI)

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Our local elevator processed dry beans and shipped in large sacks. Were some kind of woven plastic material, white in color. Two wide would just fit in standard semi-trailer. Of course, several lengthways. had straps on the top, could be easily picked up by a fork lift.

 

Ultradog MN

Well-known Member

Location

Twin Cities

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Back in the mid 80s I drove OTR for a couple of years. I remember hauling a couple of loads of white rice from Houston to the Twin Cities in large white bags like that.

 

OP

OP

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

The Chinese are trying to corner the Wheat market.

 

casecollectorsc

Well-known Member

Location

E central SD.

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

I've hauled kitty litter from Georgia to SD to soybean plant in bags like that. Course it had a high tech name, but kitty litter was made in same plant and looked the same!!!

 

L

LAA

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Maybe Phosphate in 1000 kilo bags.

 

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NCWayne

Well-known Member

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Over the years I've seen Feldspar loaded in bags like that for shipment. When I worked maintenance at a hot dip galvanizing plant, one of the liquids that was used in the process created 'acidic salts' that we had to bag and then ship out for some use or another.

 

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37chief

Well-known Member

Location

California

• Jan 4, 2013

• #1

Wayne, you worked at a hot galvanizing plant and you are still alive? I worked in maintenance at a large circuit board platting factory. Constantly aroung fuming plating tanks. The worse was cleaning the heating tubes on a trichloroethylene degreaser with a wire wheel. (no mask)It's a wonder we're still alive. Stan

 

P

Philt

Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

It was probably money going to China to pay the interest on our debt.

 

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Dick2

Well-known Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

Back in the late 60's. the oil variety of sunflowers that we grew on contract were shipped to Japan in those type of bags for processing into cooking oil.

 

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Larry O

Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

Could also be pecan South GA. Ships a lot of their pecan that way. It is peek shipping time about now as most of the pecans are picked up out of the groves. A lot gets shipped to the warehouses in FL. I will try and get a picture or two this coming week and post here.

 

showcrop

Well-known Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

(quoted from post at 03:55:50 01/05/13) Could also be pecan South GA. Ships a lot of their pecan that way. It is peek shipping time about now as most of the pecans are picked up out of the groves. A lot gets shipped to the warehouses in FL. I will try and get a picture or two this coming week and post here.

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I think pecans is pretty likely. It has to be something of fairly high value. Phosphates come in from China, don't go out.

 

J

JBMac

Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

Not to be a smarty pants, but my home state of Florida is a
Hugh phosphate producer, exporting millions of tons to china
and abroad. In this case, you are correct, not phosphate.
Phosphate it shipped form the other side of the state near
Tampa. Mosaic and Cf industries have several,facilities where
the ore is processed and loaded onto ships in bulk. I was a
contractor in the mines in Central Florida (near Ft Meade
where the Fl flywheelers show is held). It"s a pretty fascinating
process. They estimate they only have about 30 years of
mining left, as they have dug up most of the quality ore.

 

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NCWayne

Well-known Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

Yep, worked at a place called Galvan not to far from me. It was one of the nastiest places I've ever worked with acidic dust laying on everything. They were building a new building over everything just before I left that was supposed to be better ventilated, etc but I don't think it worked to well as any vehicle parked within a few hundered yards of the place for any length of time eventually turns a dull yellow color. Thankfully I didn't work there but about 9 months before moving on to another maintenance position that paid a bit better, and had much better working conditions.

 

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Ozlander

Well-known Member

• Jan 5, 2013

• #1

(quoted from post at 23:23:01 01/04/13) It was probably money going to China to pay the interest on our debt.

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Actually it was money going to all those countries that hate us.