Baton Rouge. (Port of Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

The Port of Baton Rouge is the farthest inland deepwater port on the Mississippi River. Its 45-foot depth allows ocean-bound freighters and tankers to deliver cargo as far as 230 miles upstream from the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ranked the Port of Baton Rouge as the fourth-largest in the United States, with more than 86 million tons of bulk and breakbulk commodities handled annually at public and private terminals.

Port-owned terminals showed a slight increase in total tonnage in 1996, reaching 6,738,380 tons, compared to 6,671,537 tons in 1995. Two areas were primarily responsible for this increase:

* The Midsteam Handling Facility, which had been idle for three years, handled 56,188 short tons of grain and coke.

* The Petroleum Terminal, operated by Petroleum Fuel and Terminal Co. (a subsidiary of Apex Oil Co.), recorded a 56-percent increase in cargo, reaching 604,161 tons.

The port's Grain Elevator also showed a double-digit increase, rising 12 percent to 1,238,294 tons in 1996.

The elevator serves farmers and ranchers throughout the state, handling 25 percent of Louisiana's entire corn crop and 25 percent of Louisiana's corn and soybean crops.

Cargill Inc., which leases the elevator, handles soybeans, soft red wheat, oats, corn and grain products at the elevator. Cargill also operates a flour mill adjacent to the elevator and ships product to domestic and international markets.

General Cargo. Port-owned …