North American Rail Traffic Fell 3.9% in Week Ended June 15

By Colin Kellaher

North American rail traffic fell 3.9% last week as U.S. volumes continued to decline, data from the Association of American Railroads showed.

Carload volume for the week ended June 15 on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads fell 3.4%, while intermodal traffic fell 4.4%, the trade group said Wednesday.

North American rail traffic was 6.2% lower in the week ended June 8. For the first 24 weeks of the year, North American volume is now down 1.9%, compared with a year-to-date decline of 1.8% reported a week ago.

The AAR said U.S. rail traffic fell 5.4% last week after tumbling 8.5% a week earlier. The volume of intermodal containers and trailers slid 6.2% for the week, while carloads fell 4.6% amid declines in eight of the 10 commodity groups tracked.

U.S. carloads of coal, the biggest commodity tracked, fell 8.9% last week. Freight-markets data provider FreightWaves said the decline reflects weak export markets and poor demand from U.S. electric utilities.

U.S. rail traffic is now down 2.8% for the year to date, compared with a cumulative decline of 2.7% at the end of the previous week, the AAR said.

The AAR said rail traffic rose 0.8% in Canada last week, with carloads edging up 0.6% and intermodal units up 1%.

Rail traffic fell 1.3% in Mexico last week, as a 4.7% drop in carloads more than offset a 2.9% rise in intermodal units.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 19, 2019 12:38 ET (16:38 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.