North American Rail Traffic Fell 3.8% in Week Ended Aug. 17
August 21 2019 - 12:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail traffic fell 3.8% last week amid another
sharp decline in the U.S., data from the Association of American
Railroads showed.
Carload volume for the week ended Aug. 17 on 12 reporting U.S.,
Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 4.1%, while intermodal traffic
fell 3.5%, the trade group said Wednesday.
North American rail traffic was 2.7% lower in the week ended
Aug. 10. For the first 33 weeks of the year, North American volume
is now down 2.4%, compared with a year-to-date decline of 2.3%
reported a week earlier.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 5.2% last week on top of a
4.3% drop a week earlier. U.S. carloads fell 4.9%, led by steep
drops in shipments of coal and grain.
The number of U.S. railcars sitting idle has climbed to
multi-month highs amid big downturns in dry bulk commodities,
particularly grain and sand used for hydraulic fracturing of oil
wells, according to freight-markets data provider FreightWaves.
The volume of U.S. intermodal containers and trailers fell 5.4%
for the week.
U.S. rail traffic is down 3.5% for the year to date, the AAR
said.
The AAR said rail traffic rose 1.1% in Canada last week, as a
3.8% rise in intermodal units more than offset a 1.4% drop in
carloads.
Rail traffic fell 2.5% in Mexico last week, the AAR said, with
carloads down 2.9% and intermodal units off 2%.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2019 12:44 ET (16:44 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