North American Rail Traffic Fell 8% in Week Ended Nov. 2
November 06 2019 - 1:37PM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail traffic fell 8% last week, as global trade
disputes and slowing growth overseas continue to weigh on freight
carriers, data from the Association of American Railroads
showed.
Carload volume for the week ended Oct. 26 on 12 reporting U.S.,
Canadian and Mexican railroads declined by 8%, while intermodal
traffic fell 7.9%, the trade group said Wednesday.
North American rail traffic was also down 8% in the week ended
Oct. 26. For the first 44 weeks of the year, North American volume
is now down 3.3%, compared with a year-to-date drop of 3.2%
reported a week earlier.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic slid 8.8% last week, matching an
8.8% drop a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 8.9% amid a 17.5% drop
in shipments of coal, the largest of the 10 commodity groups
tracked. The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell
8.6% for the week.
"Sluggish growth abroad and trade developments are weighing on
business investment, exports, and manufacturing," said John Gray,
AAR senior vice president. "Unfotunately, those are precisely what
drive much of the freight carried by U.S. railroads, and their
weakness goes a long way in explaining why rail traffic is down
right now."
For the month of October, U.S. rail traffic fell 8.1%, marking
the ninth straight month of declines for both carloads and
intermodal units. U.S. rail traffic is now down 4.4% for the year
to date, compared with a decline of 4.3% reported a week earlier,
the AAR said.
"Railroads are hopeful that policymakers here and abroad will
take sensible actions aimed at accelerating growth and removing the
uncertainty that's constraining many economic sectors," Mr. Gray
said.
The AAR said Canadian rail traffic fell 7.4% last week amid a
7.6% drop in carloads and a 7.1% decline in intermodal units.
Mexican rail traffic rose 1.2% last week, the AAR said, as a
3.6% rise in carloads more than offset a 1.1% decline in intermodal
units.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 06, 2019 13:22 ET (18:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024