North American Rail Traffic Falls 7% in Week Ended Aug. 29
September 02 2020 - 1:54PM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
North American rail traffic fell 7% last week, as declines in
carloads more than offset continued improvement in intermodal
loadings, data from the Association of American Railroads
showed.
Carload volume fell 15.3% for the week ended Aug. 29 on 12
reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads, while intermodal
traffic rose 1.6%, the trade group said Wednesday.
In the week ended Aug. 22, North American rail traffic fell
5.1%. For the first 35 weeks of the year, North American traffic is
now down 11%, compared with a year-to-date decline of 11.2%
reported a week earlier.
The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 6.2% last week, compared
with a drop of 3.3% a week earlier, as carloads tumbled 15.9% amid
declines in all 10 commodity groups tracked.
Analysts at Citigroup, however, said the week-over-week decline
was likely related to Tropical Storm Marco and Hurricane Laura and
not a significant step backwards in terms of a volume recovery
trend.
The volume of intermodal containers and trailers rose 3.4% in
the U.S. last week, wrapping up the best month in terms of
intermodal loadings since October 2018 and the fifth best
intermodal month ever, the AAR said.
"Despite the pandemic and the associated economic dislocations,
an enormous amount of freight continues to move on railroads and
other transportation modes," John Gray, AAR senior vice president,
said.
U.S. rail traffic is now down 11.8% for the year to date, the
AAR said, compared with a decline of 11.9% reported a week ago.
Canadian rail traffic fell 8.6% last week, as carloads slumped
15.3% while intermodal units edged down 0.8%. Canadian rail traffic
is down 8.6% for the first 35 weeks of the year.
Mexican rail traffic fell 11.4% for the week amid, with carloads
down 8.1% and intermodal units sliding 15.1%. Mexican rail traffic
is down 10.7% for the year so far, the AAR said.
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 02, 2020 13:39 ET (17:39 GMT)
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