OTTAWA, Ontario — Shipments of U.S. grain through the Great Lakes in states such as Indiana and Ohio are up dramatically so far this year, with help from growth in markets overseas.

That’s according to officials at the Chamber of Marine Commerce (CMC) out of Ontario. The CMC report from Aug. 12 revealed shipments of grain from the United States through the Saint Lawrence Seaway totaled 765,000 metric tons from April 2-July 31 – up 63 percent from the same period in 2014.

Great Lakes ports in the United States that receive and export grain through the waterway include those in Burns Harbor, Ind., Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo, Buffalo, N.Y., and Duluth, Minn.

For soybeans, a combination of higher supplies, lower grain prices and cheaper international freight costs have allowed handlers to recapture previous levels of overseas trade in Northern Europe and North Africa, CMC officials said. There have also been a higher volumes of U.S. corn going to Canada for use in the production of ethanol and animal feed, in part due to strong supplies, officials said.

Much of the increase in grain shipments this year through the seaway has come from the Port of Toledo, which also has handled increased numbers of petroleum products and bulk materials.

"There is a considerable amount of grain moving out in salties and lakers this year prior to harvest," said Joe Cappel, vice president of business development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. "We have even seen transfers of wheat between the grain elevators and the flour mill via vessel this year within the Port of Toledo. That’s what I call short sea shipping."

The port in Detroit also reported a 17 percent rise this season in shipments of steel, aluminum and machinery that will be used in manufacturing and automobile production.

"The Great Lakes Seaway is a vital trade corridor for American grain exports which will continue to be relied on into autumn when the new harvests begin. The more buoyant U.S. economy is also creating demand for other products such as construction, manufacturing and steel-making materials," said Stephen Brooks, president of the CMC.

No statistics were available on what percentage of all U.S. grains are shipped through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway on their way to the Atlantic Ocean. But Julia Fields, a spokesperson for the CMC, said grain from all the Great Lakes states and others like North Dakota come through the channel, and so does wheat from other parts of the Midwest.

Wheat from major producing states such as Nebraska come into the system at Lake Superior, she added. ‘We’ve had a lot of good crops and good demand," she said.

The Saint Lawrence Seaway also handles 80 percent of all of the iron ore used in making steel in the United States, she said.

Despite the upswing in shipments of grain and other products, total cargo tonnage on the seaway, at 14.5 metric tons, is down 7 percent from a year ago with shipments of coal showing a major reduction at 38 percent, according to the CMC report.

The 370-mile seaway was completed in 1959 and took five years to build, and the $470 million cost was absorbed by the United States and Canada. The section upstream of the seaway does not provide for continuous travel, instead relying on a series of locks and canals along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River that allow vessels to bypass several rapids and dams along the way.

The seaway provides access to the Atlantic Ocean from as far as the western end of Lake Superior and is often referred to as a 2,300-mile superhighway for ocean freighters because of the connection it provides to the ocean from all of the Great Lakes.

Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally opened the seaway with a short cruise after speaking to crowds in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, according to historical accounts.