Railways Have Good March, Poor Quarter

OTTAWA - May 28/08 - SNS -- Total freight handled by Canadian railways was down during the first quarter of the 2008 calendar year, despite a strong March, according to Statistics Canada.

Railways loaded 22.9 million metric tons (MT) of freight in March, a 6.8% gain over February's loadings. Non-intermodal loadings of coal, potash, wheat, colza seeds (canola), and sulphur accounted for the vast majority of the increase, as a result of their rising demand inside and outside of Canada. The strength of these commodities caused overall non-intermodal loadings to climb 7.3% to 20.6 million MT.

Intermodal loadings also rose in March, rising 2.5% to 2.3 million MT. The rise was almost entirely attributable to increased containerized cargo shipments.

Rail freight traffic coming from the United States increased as well in March, rising 6.2% to about 2.9 million MT.

On a year-over-year basis, March's non-intermodal loadings were down slightly, while intermodal loadings were down 7.8%. Traffic received from the United States increased 5.5%, an all-time high for the month of March.

On a quarterly basis, loadings in the first quarter of 2008 fell 5.9% to about 67.1 million MT compared with loadings from the fourth quarter of 2007. This decline is typical for the time period. Compared with the first quarter of 2007, however, loadings in the first quarter of 2008 were up almost 1%.

Among the factors behind the decline between the first and fourth quarters were reduced loadings within the agriculture, forestry and manufacturing sectors.