Iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes totaled 6 million net tons in July, a 72 percent increase over July 2009’s 3.47 million tons. However, shipments were about 6 percent below the month’s five-year average of 6.31 million tons. Total ore shipments in July were 5.97 million tons, compared to 3.47 million tons in July 2009 and the month’s five-year average of 6.31 million tons. For the year, 27.6 million tons of iron ore were shipped on the Great Lakes through the end of July, an increase of 115 from the 12.84 million tons shipped by the same time last year and just 1.4 percent below the five-year average of 28.01 million tons.