August Busy for Canada's Railways

OTTAWA - Oct 24/06 - SNS -- Canada's railways experienced their busiest month of the year in August, moving 25.1 million metric tons (MT) of freight, according to Statistics Canada.

Tonnage was up 5.2% from July, which was the highest level of freight for the month of July in six years. Total tonnage has increased for two months in a row.

Loadings of non-intermodal goods had the biggest impact on August's freight volumes. They were up 5.4% to 22.7 million MT, the highest tonnage for the month of August in the past six years.

This gain occurred despite substantial declines in loadings of coal and wheat. These declines were offset by sharp gains in loadings of other cereal grains, potash, sulphur and lumber.

Commodities such as canola and other wood products are becoming more important for the rail industry. So far this year, monthly loadings of canola are on average 2,000 carloads higher than the monthly average for 2005.

Breaking out loadings by commodity, Statistics Canada reports railways hauled 16,892 cars containing 1.531 million MT of wheat in August, up from 15,612 cars carrying 1.407 million MT last year. They also carried 5,876 cars or 471,065 MT of canola in August, versus 3,475 cars with 273,339 MT last year.

So far this year, railways hauled 150,408 cars containing 13.61 million MT of wheat, versus 131,607 cars carrying 11.826 million MT the first eight months of last year. They also carried 50,145 cars or 3.982 million MT of canola, compared to 27,970 cars with 2.196 million MT last year.

Loadings of "other wood products," which consist primarily of finished products for housing construction, have been consistently on the rise for the past seven years, thanks to the strength of residential and business construction in both Canada and the United States.

In 1999, these miscellaneous wood products filled about 4,000 carloads a month. In August this year, they filled about 7,500. Looked at in another way, these products accounted for 1.5% of total non-intermodal loadings in August 1999. By August this year, this proportion had nearly doubled to 2.7%.

Intermodal loadings, that is, containers and trailers hauled on flat cars, increased 3.6% from July to 2.4 million MT, which was the highest level ever for the month of August.

Freight coming from the United States, either destined for or passing through Canada, jumped 9.9% from the previous month to 2.4 million MT.

On a year-over-year basis, non-intermodal tonnage in August was 1.2% higher than last year. Intermodal loadings were up 1.5%, while traffic received from the United States rose 9.1%.