US weekly chemical railcar traffic up 1.3%

01 May 2008 17:14  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--US chemical railcar traffic for the week ended 26 April rose 1.3% from the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said on Thursday.

 

Chemical railcar loadings for the week totalled 32,093, compared with 31,673 for the same week in 2007, the association said.

 

Total chemical railcar loadings in the year-to-date period through to 26 April came to 528,064, up 2.4% from the same period in 2007.

 

The AAR did not cite reasons for the decrease in weekly chemicals shipments.

 

Analysts consider rail shipment data to be a good early indicator of current chemical industry activity. Railroads transport more than 20% of the chemicals produced in the US.

 

Railcar loadings for all 19 commodities tracked by the AAR for the week were 335,865.

 

This reflects a small increase of 0.3% compared with 334,820 in the same week of 2007, as sharp gains in loadings of coal and grain were large enough to offset drops in metallic ores, automotive traffic and lumber, the association said.

 

Overall railcar loadings for the 19 commodity categories listed by the AAR reached 5.5m to date through 26 April, up 1% compared with the same period of 2007.

 

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

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