Weak coal demand drags down US roads weekly carloads

Tuesday, 02 Mar 2010

According to the Association of American Railroads, snowstorms didn’t hamper US railroads’ traffic last week like they did the week before but sluggish coal demand did. During the week ending February 20th 2010, their carloads declined 1.6% to 273,999 units compared with traffic from the same week in 2009. Coal volume tumbled by 16,828 units YoY a primary reason total weekly volume dropped 0.7% to an estimated 29.8 billion tonne miles.

Robert W Baird & Company Inc analysts in their weekly Rail Flash report said that coal volume trends will remain negative through the Q1 until comparisons ease in the Q2. Utility stockpiles remain elevated, but well off recent highs. Improved industrial production, exports and strong demand should result in a faster than expected return to normal coal carload demand.

Meanwhile, US railroads’ intermodal traffic rose sharply because of strong domestic demand and higher international volumes. During the week ending February 20th 2010, they handled 200,204 containers and trailers up 19% YoY.

Canadian railroads reported weekly volume of 70,455 carloads up 9.6% and intermodal volume of 43,605 units up 12.5%. Mexican railroads reported 14,099 carloads up 25.3% and 6,364 intermodal loads up 12.7%.

Source: http://steelguru.com/news/index/MTM0OTg2/Weak_coal_demand_drags_down_US_roads_weekly_carloads.html