REAL ESTATE

Nashville's Ingram Barge Co. lays off 47 employees

Job cuts reflect drop in business of hauling coal down the Mississippi and other rivers

Getahn Ward
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
The Ingram Barge Co.'s HB Stewart, front, passes the General Jackson and another showboat as it travels toward Nashville on the Cumberland River on April 1, 2009.
  • 21 of the affected Ingram Barge employees are based in Nashville, a company spokesman said.
  • The layoffs come amid a decline in coal shipments to the lowest levels in decades, according to an article at investing.com.
  • Lease rates paid to barge operators are more than 30 percent below their five-year average for February.
  • “Any business has to constantly balance their staffing with the volume of work to be done," said Ingram spokesman Keel Hunt.

Ingram Barge Co. has laid off 47 employees, a move related to a drop in its business of hauling grains, coal and other bulk goods down the Mississippi and other rivers.

The layoffs last week affected a mix of employees who work in offices and on the company's boats, including 21 people who were based in Nashville.

“Any business has to constantly balance their staffing with the volume of work to be done," said Ingram spokesman Keel Hunt, who also writes columns for The Tennessean. "That's what happened here."

Overall, the barge company, which is part of Nashville's Ingram family Ingram Industries conglomerate, has 2,185 employees. Ingram Barge's last job cuts affected 16 workers in 2014, Hunt said.

Hunt declined to confirm that the drop in business is specifically related in part to a fall in coal shipments and Ingram Barge's reported loss last year of key public utility client The Dayton Power & Light Co.

An article featured this week at Investing.com, however, cited a barge glut on the Mississippi River that's leaving barge companies counting their losses.

Specifically, the article cited the collapse of coal shipments to the lowest levels in decades leaving the dry bulk barge fleet chasing too little cargo. It also noted barge lease rates paid to Ingram and other operators more than 30 percent below the five-year average for February.

A daytime river scene captured from the wheelhouse of an Ingram Barge Co. towboat

Hunt said Ingram Barge plans to provide transitional packages and other assistance to each affected employee.

Led by CEO Orrin Ingram, Ingram Barge operates nearly 4,000 barges with a fleet of more than 80 line haul vessels and 30 tugboats that move goods on rivers in the eastern half of the United States. The company is part of Ingram Industries' Ingram Marine Group.

Reach Getahn Ward at gward@tennessean.com or 615-726-5968 and on Twitter @getahn.