Hurricanes hit US chem shipments hard - bank

30 September 2008 15:38  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--The four-week moving average for US chemical railcar shipments dropped 7.9% year on year in the week ended 20 September, versus a 1.7% decline in the prior week, due to hurricanes Ike and Gustav, Deutsche Bank said on Tuesday.

 

On a weekly comparison, chemical railcar shipments were down 21.7% for the week ended 20 September, compared with the year-earlier week, and declined 15% sequentially, the bank said.

 

“The drop-off in chemical shipment activity continues to reflect lost production and disrupted US Gulf Coast shipping infrastructure caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike,” the bank said in an analysis of the weekly rail shipment data.

 

The weekly rail data is a good early indicator of current industry activity in US chemicals. Railroads transport more than 20% of the chemicals produced in the US.

 

Deutsche also said that chemical shipments appeared to be supported by ethanol which represented some 8% of chemical loadings last year.

 

“With loadings tracking DoE [Department of Energy] ethanol blending data, which are up 28% through September, we suspect ethanol continues to boost chemicals railcar data,” the analysts said.

 

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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