About as much tonnage of freight is shipped on the Ohio River each year as passes through the Panama Canal. Southeast Ohio has two commercial river terminals for movement of bulk materials.

Appalachian Ohio borders nearly 450 miles of the Ohio River. The Ohio River in this region carries mostly coal, but other valuable commodities such as aggregates, petroleum, iron, steel and chemicals also are transported by barge. In 1999, more than 130 million tons of commodities moved to, from, within and past Ohio. These commodities had a combined value of more than $14.5 billion.

There were 142 manufacturing facilities, terminals and docks in Ohio that shipped and received tonnage in 1999. From 250 million to 300 million tons of cargo are transported on the Ohio River each year. The annual tonnage has surpassed the Panama Canal.