Econintersect: Week 11 of 2013 ending March 16 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:
“Five of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, including petroleum products, up 58.3 percent, and motor vehicles and parts, up 15.6 percent. Commodities showing a decrease were led by grain, down 19.2 percent.
For the first eleven weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,010,769 carloads, down 3.3 percent from the same point last year, and 2,615,688 intermodal units, up 6.6 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first eleven weeks of 2013 was 5,626,457 carloads and intermodal units, up 1.1 percent from last year.”
USA coal production is down 3.5% same week year-over-year, and the cumulative effect on rail carloads continues to be a headwind.
| This Week | Carloads | Intermodal | Total |
| This week Year-over-Year | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.6% |
| Ignoring coal and grain | 9.6% | ||
| Year Cumulative to Date | -3.3% | 6.6% | 1.1% |
[click on graph below to enlarge]
Current Rail Chart
/images/z rail1.pn
From EIA.gov:
For the week ended March 16, 2013:
- U.S. coal production totaled approximately 18.8 million short tons (mmst)
- This production estimate is 1.0 percent lower than last week’s estimate and 3.5 percent lower than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2012
- Coal production east of the Mississippi River totaled 8.4 mmst
- Coal production west of the Mississippi River totaled 10.4 mmst
- U.S. year-to-date coal production totaled 203.1 mmst, 10.5 percent lower than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2012
Source: AAR
