Econintersect: Week 10 of 2013 ending March 09 shows same week total rail traffic above 2012 levels according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR):
- Four week rolling average is degrading;
- 13 week rolling average is degrading;
- 52 week rolling average is improving.
A summary of the data:
“Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum products, up 46.5 percent. Commodities showing a decrease were led by grain, down 16.5 percent.
For the first ten weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 2,730,145 carloads, down 3.7 percent from the same point last year, and 2,386,882 intermodal units, up 7.2 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first ten weeks of 2013 was 5,117,027 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.1 percent from last year.”
USA coal production is down 1.9% same week year-over-year, and the cumulative effect on rail carloads continues to drag traffic down.
This Week | Carloads | Intermodal | Total |
This week Year-over-Year | -0.9% | 4.0% | 1.3% |
Ignoring coal and grain | 6.0% | ||
Year Cumulative to Date | -3.7% | 7.2% | 1.1% |
[click on graph below to enlarge]
Current Rail Chart
/images/z rail1.pn
From EIA.gov:
For the week ended March 09, 2013:
- U.S. coal production totaled approximately 19.0 million short tons (mmst)
- This production estimate is 1.9 percent lower than last week’s estimate and 4.1 percent lower than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2012
- Coal production east of the Mississippi River totaled 8.5 mmst
- Coal production west of the Mississippi River totaled 10.5 mmst
- U.S. year-to-date coal production totaled 184.3 mmst, 11.2 percent lower than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2012
Source: AAR