US chemical railcar traffic down 5.1% in October

06 November 2008 17:55  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--US chemical railcar traffic fell 5.1% in October and plunged 11.4% year-on-year for the last week of the month, the ninth straight decline in weekly shipments, amid a weakening economic environment, according to data released on Thursday.

 

Overall railcar traffic for the 19 commodity categories tracked by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) fell 2.8%, compared with October 2007.

 

“With the kind of economic news we’ve had over the past few weeks, a decline in rail traffic in October shouldn’t surprise anyone,” said AAR senior vice President John Gray.

 

Auto-related rail traffic remained weak because of weak auto sales and grain traffic was down as well, in part because last October’s rail grain traffic was at record highs.

 

Only coal shipments, the largest of the 19 commodity categories, rose in October, Gray said.

 

As for the weekly chemical traffic, railcar loadings were 27,463 for the week ended 1 November, down from 30,993 in the same week in 2007.

 

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

 

For the year-to-date period through to 1 November, chemical railcar loadings were up 0.9% to 1,344,306, from 1,331,940 in the same period last year.

 

Railcar loadings for all 19 commodity categories tracked by the AAR for the week totalled 319,994, down 5.4% from 338,156 in the same week last year, the AAR said.

 

In Canada, October chemical railcar loadings were down 9.9% from the same month last year while overall commodity railcar loadings dropped 7.6%, it said.

 

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

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