Conneaut is one of the world's largest and most economical bulk terminals.
It is a public facility owned by private enterprise. It received no subsidies, and no part of it was built by public funds. Nevertheless, Conneaut is one of the lowest cost bulk terminal operations. Terminal charges are $1.19 per ton of coal for railroad unloading, stockpiling and shiploading [1]. It charges USD1.40 per ton of iron ore from vessel to stockpile to railroad [2].
Obviously, this requires highly competent management. Indeed, the computerized preventive maintenance systems developed at Conneaut received extensive treatment in the technical literature [3]. However from an economic viewpoint the fact that Conneaut succeeded in keeping capital costs to a minimum was crucial and is the subject of this paper.
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