September Railcar Loadings Drop

OTTAWA - Nov 21/06 - SNS -- Railcars loadings in Canada declined in September, ending up around 24.0 million metric tons (MT) of freight, down 4.4% from August, reports Statistics Canada.

Loadings of wood by-products, chemicals and chemical by-products all fell as a result of several mill closures in these two industrial sectors.

The non-intermodal portion of goods totalled 21.7 million MT, down 4.5% from August. Weaker loadings of iron ore were offset by strong loadings of grains as the harvest season produced a good yield.

Railways loaded 2.4 million MT of intermodal, or containerized, freight, down 2.5% from August.

Traffic received from the United States increased for the fourth consecutive month, setting an all-time high for September of 2.4 million MT.

On a year-over-year basis, non-intermodal tonnage in September was up 0.7% from the same month last year. Containerized freight in September was 0.9% higher, while traffic received from the United States jumped 14.9%.

Despite September's slowdown, loadings for the third quarter amounted to 73.0 million MT, the highest ever for a third quarter.

Intermodal (containerized) loadings between July and September hit nearly 7.1 million MT, up 2.4% from the same three months last year. Non-intermodal freight rose 1.7% to 65.9 million MT.

Third-quarter loadings rose 0.9% over the second quarter. Historically, loadings in the third quarter have been less than in the second quarter.