North American Rail Traffic Fell 2% in Week Ended Oct. 2
October 06 2021 - 3:42PM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail traffic fell 2% last week, wrapping up a
month of declines marked by supply-chain constraints, data from the
Association of American Railroads showed.
Carload volume rose 2.9% for the week ended Oct. 2 on 12
reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads, while intermodal
traffic fell 6.3%, the trade group said Wednesday.
In the week ended Sept. 25, North American rail traffic fell
1.9%. For the first 39 weeks of the year, North American rail
traffic is up 7.9%, compared with a year-to-date gain of 8.2%
reported a week earlier.
"Rail intermodal volume is clearly not what it has been and
could be," said John Gray, AAR senior vice president. "Keeping
intermodal terminals functioning smoothly and at full capacity
depends on consistent freight outflows to make room for new freight
inflows. Unfortunately, due to limited availability of downstream
truck and warehouse capacity, that's not happening right now, with
predictable impacts on rail intermodal volume."
Analysts at Citi this week lowered their third-quarter earnings
estimates for railroads, saying disappointing volume is likely to
more than offset emerging pricing strength. Citi said volume
weakness was widespread across the group, with carloads
decelerating consistently through the quarter across multiple
commodities.
"There is no single solution to this problem, but railroads are
bringing intermodal yard capacity back online to increase storage
availability as well as working with customers and truckers to
accelerate container pickup among other efforts," Mr. Gray
said.
The AAR said U.S. slipped traffic fell 0.5% last week, with a
4.2% rise in carloads more than offset by a 4.4% drop in the volume
of intermodal containers and trailers. U.S. rail traffic is up 9%
for the first 39 weeks of the year.
Canadian rail traffic fell 3.9% last week, with intermodal units
down 9.2% and carloads up 1%. Canadian rail traffic is up 5% for
the first 39 weeks of the year.
Mexican rail traffic slid 15.6% last week amid a 5.9% drop in
carloads and a 25.7% plunge in intermodal units. Mexican rail
traffic is up 5.3% for the year to date, the AAR said.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 06, 2021 15:27 ET (19:27 GMT)
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