US weekly chemical railcar traffic rises for third time this year

05 November 2009 17:49  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Chemical shipments on US railroads rose 3.6% last week from the same time last year, marking their third increase so far this year, an industry association said on Thursday.

For the week ended on 31 October, chemical rail car loadings were 28,032, up by 971 car loads from 27,061 in the same week last year, according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Chemical rail car loadings are seen as an important measure of chemical industry activity and demand. Rail car loadings represent about 20% of chemical volumes by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest.

Chemicals were one of only four commodity categories with year-over-year growth last week, the association said. Overall, weekly railcar shipments for the 19 commodity categories the AAR tracks remained down, falling 13.7% from the same week last year.

Year to date to 31 October, US chemical rail car loadings are down 13.1% to 1,130,402, from 1,300,383 in the year-earlier period.

In the previous week ended on 24 October, US chemical railcar loadings were 26,851, down by 1.9% or 534 car loads from 27,385 in the same week last year.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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