Grain a gainer for AAR carloads

While U.S. businesses tried to make sense of President Trump’s plans for punitive tariffs, they got decidedly good news from the Association of American Railroads.

Rail traffic, some destined for overseas markets, continued to grow for the latest week, and for the month of March.

“Railroads are a derived-demand industry,” said AAR Senior Vice President of Policy and Economics John T. Gray. “Their level of business depends to a large degree on what’s happening elsewhere in the economy. There’s always some economic uncertainty – today that involves, among other things, trade relations, commodity prices, and what the Fed will do about interest rates – but economic signals today are mostly positive. Rail traffic in March was largely positive too, at least in terms of traffic segments that are most sensitive to what’s going on in the economy.”

Total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 534,751 carloads and intermodal units for the week ended March 31, up 2.8% from the same week in 2017. Traffic totaled 265,470 carloads, up 2.8%, and intermodal volume was 269,281 containers and trailers, also gaining 2.8% on-year.

Eight of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase from a year ago. They included coal, 5.1%; chemicals, 4.6%, and grain, 3.5%.

Declining commodities were farm products excluding grain, and food, 1.6%, and petroleum and petroleum products, 1.7%.

North American rail volume for the week on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 367,608 carloads, up 2.1%, and 352,578 intermodal units, up 2.5%. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 720,186 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.3%. North American volume for the first 13 weeks of 2018 was 9,149,812 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4% compared with 2017.

Canadian railroads reported 82,078 carloads for the week, up 1.3 percent, and 68,985 intermodal units, up 8.5 percent compared with the same week in 2017. For the first 13 weeks of 2018, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 1,863,756 carloads, containers and trailers, up 2.6%.

Mexican railroads reported 20,060 carloads for the week, down 3%, and 14,312 intermodal units, down 22.2%. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 13 weeks of 2018 was 493,476 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers, off 1.7%.

For all of March, U.S. railroads originated 1,050,653 carloads, up 3.6% from March 2017. U.S. railroads also originated 1,082,239 containers and trailers, up 6.5%. Combined U.S. carload and intermodal originations in March were 2,132,892, up 5% from March 2017.

Ten of the 20 carload commodity categories in March saw carload gains year-on-year. These included coal, 7.9%; chemicals, 5.9%, and crushed stone, sand and gravel, 8%.

Commodities that saw declines included nonmetallic minerals, 19.5%; motor vehicles and parts, 3.2%, and coke, 8.1%.

Excluding coal, carloads were up 1.6% in March. Excluding coal and grain, carloads gained 1.8%.

Total U.S. carload traffic for the first three months of 2018 was 3,296,199 carloads, down 0.3% the same period a year ago, and 3,496,381 intermodal units, up 5.5%.

Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 13 weeks of 2018 was 6,792,580 carloads and intermodal units, an increase of 2.6% from 2017.