US weekly chemical railcar traffic rises 1.2% year on year

18 August 2011 17:22  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Chemical shipments on US railroads rose 1.2% year on year in the week ended on 13 August, a rail industry group said on Thursday.

There were 29,682 chemical railcar loadings last week, compared with 29,325 loadings in the same week in 2010, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said.

In the week ended on 6 August, US chemical railcar traffic was up by 0.7% year on year.

The 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 shipments by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest.

Meanwhile, overall US weekly railcar shipments for the 19 high-volume freight commodity groups tracked by the AAR fell 1.2% to 292,266 carloads.

Year to date US chemical railcar loadings were up by 4.8% year on year to 966,804 carloads.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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