US weekly chemical railcar traffic falls 4.4% year on year

28 April 2011 16:47  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Chemical shipments on US railroads fell 4.4% in the week ended 23 April, compared with the same period in 2010, marking their second decline this year, a rail industry group said on Thursday.

There were 29,276 chemical railcar loadings last week, down by 1,362 carloads from 30,638 in the same week of 2010, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

The previous week ended 16 April saw a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.

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 fell 2.1% to 292,706.

In the year to date to 23 April, US chemical railcar loadings were up by 5.6% to 488,392 carloads.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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