North America Rail Traffic Fell 1.9% in Week Ended March 30
April 03 2019 - 11:05AM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail volume of carloads and intermodal units
slipped 1.9% last week amid a steep drop in U.S. coal traffic, the
Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.
Carload volume for the week ended March 30 on 12 reporting U.S.,
Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 5.2%, while intermodal traffic
rose 1.5%, the trade group said.
North American rail traffic was 3.4% lower in the week ended
March 23. For the first 13 weeks of the year, North American volume
is down 1.3%.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 4.6% last week as carloads
slid 8.9%, marked by a 26.3% drop in coal shipments. U.S.
intermodal volume edged down 0.4% last week.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic is down 1.8% for the year to
date, but whether that indicates a looming U.S. recession remains
to be seen, according to Jim Blaze, an analyst at freight-markets
data provider FreightWaves.
Mr. Blaze said the decline "suggests that the economy isn't
humming, but that alone is not predictive of a recession."
The AAR said rail traffic rose 4.2% in Canada and 14.2% in
Mexico for the week ended March 30.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 03, 2019 10:50 ET (14:50 GMT)
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