Johnston’s Port 33 will have a new tenant.

Vice President Steve Taylor confirmed that the grain elevator at the privately owned port had been sold.

“There are different divisions of Johnston Enterprises,” said Taylor. “W.B. Johnston Grain sold their grain elevator assets at Johnston’s Port 33 to Consolidated Grain and Barge out of Louisiana.”

Port 33 is still owned and operated by Johnston’s.

Though shipping saw a tough year for everyone on the McClellan-Kerr Navigational System, Taylor said the company is used to fluctuations in the grain market.

Two years of drought, a wet spring, and poor harvest conditions for two years affected the grain market and shipping according to Taylor, but he said “ethanol enters into it for domestic consumption and cattle feed.”

Taylor said there will continue to be a market for corn.

As to the sale of the grain elevator at the port, Taylor said the change in owners would open a door.

“It is an opportunity to work with a larger grain company that’s international both in the port terminal business and the grain business,” said Taylor.

Consolidated Grain, or CGB, already operates facilities on the river in Oklahoma at Wagoner, Muskogee and Webbers Falls, said Taylor.

“We as Johnston’s Port 33 have a new tenant here in the form of Consolidated Grain and Barge or CGB,” said Taylor.

Johnston’s continues to move forward on their expansion project at Port 33 South. Taylor said the project is due to be completed in July 2008.

Once the South addition is operational, Johnston’s will be able to handle steel at that facility.

“We hope to get some business from ParFab,” said Taylor.

Officials at ParFab Industries had cited the location near Port 33 as one of the reasons for placing their new industrial complex on Highway 412 west of Inola.