Counties sweet on salt prices

Unfortunately, the well-intentioned article mangled a couple thoughts from my quotes. She says:

In every case ... people have told me that they have been able to reduce the amount they pay by taking early delivery," said Dick Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute, a salt industry trade association in Alexandria, Va.

Supplies of rock salt were so low after the 2007-08 winter season that more than 1 million tons of salt had to be imported to meet demand last year. In the past, the most required to fill the gap had been 200,000 tons, Hanneman said.

"Agencies are likely to be quite mindful of the stress they were under last year,'' Hanneman said. "Hopefully from now on they'll be better prepared."

1. My comment about "reducing the amount they pay" referred to my comment that agencies have reported being able to realize discounts for early-season deliveries (we covered this in our Salt and Highway Deicing (pdf 279.28 kB) newsletter this Spring).
2. The comment about importing one million tons last year was the amount imported through the Port of New Orleans (1.12 million tons); the previous record had been less than 20,000 tons. All told, the US imported 13.9 million tons last year, most of it for roadway deicing.
3. Re-reading my last quote suggests a tone I hadn't intended. Our customers are trying very hard to be prepared and investing more in salt storage facilities to make that possible. I intended to convey more empathy than my written words suggest. Sorry about that.