Canadian Railcar Loadings Rise in January

OTTAWA - Mar 21/07 - SNS -- Freight handled by Canadian railways rose 1.3% from the previous month in January to total 23.1 million metric tons (MT), according to Statistics Canada.

Commodities reported under the non-intermodal category rose from 20.6 million MT to 20.9 million MT, up 1.5% from December, while loadings of containers and trailers on flat cars remained at 2.2 million MT.

On a commodity basis, loadings of forest and paper products have, for the first time since February 2006, all shown an increase in loadings. Overall, forest and paper products went up by 9.6% from December 2006, an increase of 4,410 carloads.

On the agricultural front, the increase in "Other cereal grains", primarily consisting of barley and oats, counterbalanced the drop in wheat loadings.

Coal loadings were down for the third consecutive month, falling by more than 3,600 carloads in January. On the other hand, loadings of fuel oils and crude petroleum reached a new four-year high as January loadings totalled 6,355 carloads, a 17.9% increase over December 2006.

Loadings related to the iron and steel manufacturing sector showed signs of recovery from the three-year low reported in November 2006, as loadings reported in January reached a seven year summit of 6,444 carloads.

Automobiles and mini-vans were up 5.3% from December 2006. However, when compared to last January, loadings were down 2.5%.

Finally, freight coming from the United States, either destined for or passing through Canada, held steady at 2.5 million MT.

On a year over-year-basis, non-intermodal tonnage fell 1.2% from January 2006 while intermodal loadings rose 1.7%. Traffic received from the United States went up 4.1%.