International Shipping with the MidWest

Typically, the top US ports for ocean freight shipping remain near a major body of water like the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. Big cities like Los Angeles, New York, Norfolk and many other cities have large seaports that engage in international trade. For those cities however in the Midwest, since they are not near these large body of waters, it presents a large challenge for being active in container shipping. They might have to send their containers by rail to a large port near an ocean. That is the old way of shipping. That seems to be changing now.
A Dutch ocean vessel is now many making the 4,000-mile to go to Cleveland for purposes of international shipping. And the ship is expected to make trips back and forth with Europe. This vessel travels across the Atlantic Ocean and through the St Lawrence Seaway in Canada (which is a series of canals and channels connected to the Atlantic Ocean), before arriving in the Great Lakes to get to Cleveland. And the best interesting aspect is the by shipping cargo through the seaport, shippers in the Cleveland area are saving money on their shipping expenses.
This news is making the shipping industry think about the possibilities of trying to make this work. Logistics experts question the vitality of this type of shipping. But perhaps there remains some hope that cities in the Midwest can now also use international ocean freight shipping.