US weekly chemical railcar traffic rises by 14.9% year on year

07 April 2011 19:12  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Chemical shipments on US railroads rose by 14.9% in the week ended 2 April, compared with the same period in 2010, a rail industry group said on Thursday.

There were 33,038 chemical railcar loadings last week, up by 4,277 carloads from 28,761 loadings in the same week a year earlier, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

The previous week ended 26 March saw a year-on-year increase of 12.1%.

Weekly chemical railcar loadings data are an important real-time measure of chemical industry activity and demand.

Railcar loadings represent about 20% of US chemical volumes by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest.

Overall, US weekly railcar shipments for the 19 high-volume freight commodity groups tracked by the AAR rose by 5.7% to 305,905.

Year to date to 2 April, US chemical railcar loadings were up by 7.0% to 399,166 carloads.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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