AAR: Freight traffic maintaining overall gains
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefU.S. carload freight traffic for the week ending December 11 continued the year’s overall trend above 2009 levels, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday—up 10.2%. U.S. intermodal traffic for the week was up 14.1%, with container volume up 15.9% and trailer volume up 6.4%.
AAR said 15 of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009. Commodities leading the way included: metallic ores, up 98.6%; metals and products, up 28. %; farm products excluding grain, up 27.1%; and stone, clay, and glass products, up 24.3 %. Commodities reporting declines included non-metallic minerals, down 14.4%; grain mill products, down 5.7 %; and motor vehicles and equipment, down 5.2%.
Canadian carload freight traffic was up 10.9% for the week compared with 2009, while Canadian intermodal rose 23.6%. Mexican carload freight traffic gained 8.3% over the comparable week in 2009, while intermodal advanced 7.1%.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 49 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads was up 9.3% from last year, with intermodal up 14.8% from 2009.
AAR has announced several changes to certain carload commodity groups reported in the Weekly Rail Traffic Report that will take effect in Week 1 of 2011. Commodity Group 18, Waste and Scrap Materials, will be split into two groups, Iron and Steel Scrap (Group 18) and Waste and Nonferrous Scrap (Group 19). Commodity Group 19 will be renumbered to Commodity Group 20. Crude Petroleum will be moved from the new Commodity Group 20 to Commodity Group 13, Petroleum Products. Finally, Distiller’s Dried Grains will be moved from Commodity Group 8 to Commodity Group 7, Grain Mill Products. Rail traffic data for 2010 will be restated to maintain consistency for the year-to-year comparison.
