North American Rail Traffic Fell 4.3% in Week Ended Aug. 3
August 07 2019 - 1:21PM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail traffic fell 4.3% last week, wrapping up
another month of declines at U.S. railroads, data from the
Association of American Railroads showed.
Carload volume for the week ended Aug. 3 on 12 reporting U.S.,
Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 4.5%, while intermodal traffic
fell 4.1%, the trade group said Wednesday.
North American rail traffic was 3.1% lower in the week ended
July 20. For the first 31 weeks of the year, North American volume
is down 2.3%.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic tumbled 5.2% last week after
falling 4.4% a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 4.9% amid declines
in eight of the 10 commodity groups tracked. The volume of U.S.
intermodal containers and trailers fell 5.5% for the week.
For the month of July, U.S. rail traffic fell 5.5%, as carloads
of coal, the largest commodity group tracked, tumbled 10.3%.
"Rail traffic in July, as in many other recent months, was held
back by declines in three of the largest rail traffic segments,
coal, grain, and intermodal," said John Gray, AAR senior vice
president of policy and economics. "Despite a summer heat wave of
historical proportions, very low prices for natural gas have
seriously weakened the seasonal demand for coal-generated
electrical power."
The group said uncertainty surrounding foreign trade has weighed
on railroads' intermodal operations, which are heavily dependent on
overseas business.
U.S. rail traffic is now down 3.5% for the year to date, the AAR
said, compared with a year-to-date decline of 3.4% reported last
week.
The AAR said rail traffic slipped 0.6% in Canada last week, as a
3.6% drop in carloads more than offset a 2.9% rise in intermodal
units.
Rail traffic slid 7% in Mexico last week, the AAR said, with
carloads down 3.8% and intermodal units tumbling 10.4%.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 07, 2019 13:06 ET (17:06 GMT)
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