Standard shipping route by bulk ship?

Question

Where can I find information on standard shipping routes by bulk ships?

Specifically from Illinois to South Korea OR China.... Or where can I find this information? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Many ship through the Panama Canal. But, they doing some work on it and now a lot go through the Suez Canal.

I not sure of a link. I seen it on either History or Discovery Channel.

Illinois would probably ship down Mississippi River and then the cargo may get load to another ship in New Orleans or Galveston.

Answer 2

Use Netpas distance table to draw the route. You can see the distance.

The route to Korea or China from let's say Chicago port will be through Cabot strait,windward passage,Panama Canal and then a great circle in pacific.

Answer 3

A bulk ship loaded in Illinois (Chicago?) would sail the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, then thru the Panama Canal, which would not be a draft limitiation as the Lakes are less deep than the Panama Canal.   But if a cargo is going to the orient, it would probably make sense to load the bulk cargo in rail cars and rail it to the US or Canadian West Coast and then load the ship there.  This happens all the time, grain grown in the US and Canada gets railed often to different ocean ports for loading to vessels.  Much grain does get barged down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, where it is loaded to ships at the many elevators there.  Typically grain cargoes in Texas come from railcars.  Not as much barging east/west along the gulfcoast as one would think.  Hope this helps!