US railroad warns of snowstorm delays in northeast

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HOUSTON (ICIS)–Norfolk Southern warned on Tuesday that a severe winter storm could cause delays of 24-48 hours on rail shipments moving east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the US railroad company said.

In locations with the worst snow and ice, some local services could be curtailed, Norfolk Southern said.

Norfolk serves the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, which are being hit the hardest by the snowstorm.

Blizzard warnings are in effect for the coastal areas, starting from eastern Long Island in the state of New York to the state of Maine, according to the National Weather Service.

Winter-storm warnings and advisories are in effect for parts of northern and central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, upward to the interior of New England, the service said.

Light to moderate snow continues to fall in New Jersey and much of New England, it said. Heavy snow should continue throughout the day for much of the northeast. In areas close to the coast, hurricane-force winds of almost 75 miles/hour (121km/hour) could be possible.

The service expects an additional 8-15 inches (20-38cm) to fall throughout the day.

The snowfall, combined with strong winds could create power outages and disrupt travel by air and road, it said.

The state hardest hit so far is Massachusetts, with Shrewsbury receiving 26.2 inches from 23:00 hours eastern time (4:00 GMT) on Sunday to 9:00 on Tuesday.

During that same time, LaGuardia Airport in New York City reported 11.0 inches, and Windber Country Club in Pennsylvania reported 14.0 inches, the service said. Washington DC received 1.1 inches.

Major population areas, including New York and Boston, have been shut down.

In the city of Boston, which is expected to feel the brunt of the storm, Mayor Martin Walsh announced a snow emergency to go into effect from Monday, with car travel and public transport being suspended. News reports suggest almost 60m people could be affected by the storm overall.

New York City, however, missed the worst of the storm, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference.

“Here, in the vast majority of the city, we did not even hit 10 inches,” he said. “We got about half as much as what a lot of the projections have been.”

For petrochemicals, the northeast US is far from the Gulf coast, the nation’s production hub.

For the natural gas spot market, it was considered well-supplied to bear any demand spikes in the region.

Natural gas inventories were 8.2% higher than the same time a year ago, according to the most recent storage report released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on 22 January.

US natural gas futures on the NYMEX were edging by mid-morning, as below-normal temperatures were expected to linger into the northeast region.

However, the February front-month closed lower on 26 January to $2.88/MMBtu, 10 cents/MMBtu lower than the previous session, as comfortable inventories and relatively moderate temperatures in December and early January have taken the edge off concerns for higher demand.

The Henry Hub benchmark has been settling more than $1/MMBtu lower than the same time a year ago.

In gasoline markets, prices reformulated blendstock for oxygen blending (RBOB) were so far unchanged from Monday at $1.3167/gal.

A titanium dioxide (TiO2) buyer said there is likely little disruption in that market since only one plant is located in the northeast, the DuPont plant in Delaware.

The area received very little snow. The buyer said the storm is unlikely to have much effect on demand as well, as few buyers are in that part of the country.

With a well-supplied market, a couple of days of transportation disruptions in the northeast would not have a major impact on TiO2.

Additional reporting by Franco Capaldo, Ruth Liao, Annalise Little and Jessie Waldheim