US weekly railcar traffic rises 6%

07 August 2008 17:07  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--US chemical railcar traffic for the week ended 2 August rose 6% from the same week last year and was up 4.1% in July from July 2007, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said on Thursday.

 

Chemical railcar loadings for the week totalled 32,738, compared with 30,892 for the same week in 2007, the association said.

 

Total chemical railcar loadings in the year-to-date period through to 2 August were 969,555, up 3.3% over 938,949 from the same period in 2007.

 

For the month of July, chemical shipments were up 4.1% to 156,871, AAR said.

 

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

 

Rail shipment is 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 337,765, down 0.3% from 338,641 in the same week of 2007, the association said.

 

Overall railcar loadings for the 19 commodity categories listed by the AAR reached 10.058m year to date, up 0.4% when compared with the same period of 2007.

 

For the month of July, overall carloads were up 1.1% to 1.607m, compared with July 2007.

 

Commenting on the overall year-over-year increase in July shipments AAR senior vice president John Gray said: “All things considered - including a continued weak economy and residual effects from the devastating floods in the midwest in June - the increase in US rail traffic in July was gratifying.”

 

“With fuel prices staying high, many shippers are finding that the fuel efficiency of rail is just one more reason to turn to railroads to meet their transportation needs.”

 

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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