US weekly chemical railcar traffic rises 6.7% year over year

TORONTO (ICIS)--Chemical shipments on US railroads rose 6.7% last week from the same period in 2009, a rail industry group said on Thursday, marking their 38th increase so far this year.

Chemical railcar loadings for the week ended 2 October were 29,873, up by 1,863 carloads from 28,010 in the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

The increase in last week's chemical shipments compared with a 7.7% year-over-year increase in overall weekly railcar shipments for the 19 high-volume freight commodity groups tracked by the AAR.

Year-to-date to 2 October, US chemical railcar loadings were up 10.2% to 1,127,049 from 1,022,936 in the year-earlier period.