General (Details)	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014 segment	Jul. 31, 2012	Mar. 31, 2014 Martin Resource Management [Member]	Aug. 30, 2013 Martin Resource Management [Member] director
Business Description [Line Items]
Number of primary business lines	4
Ownership percentage		50.00%	51.00%	100.00%
Ownership percentage by parent				49.00%
Economic ownership percentage by parent				50.00%
Number of directors appointed				2

Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

No definition available.

Name:	us-gaap_NumberOfOperatingSegments
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration