Railcar Loadings Rise in January

OTTAWA - Mar 27/13 - SNS -- Freight handled by Canadian railways rose 4.6% over last year to total 26.1 million metric tons (MT) in January, according to Statistics Canada.

The increase occurred solely on the strength of domestic rail shipments. The tonnage marked the largest amount of freight carried for the month of January since 1999.

Within Canada, combined loadings of non-intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) and intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars) rose 6.1% to 23.3 million MT.

Non-intermodal loadings increased 5.7% to 20.9 million MT. The gain was tied to increased shipments in most of the commodity classifications carried by Canadian railways. Chief among these were shipments related to fuel oils and crude petroleum; potash; fresh, chilled or dried vegetables; and wheat. The growth in tonnage for these four commodities alone was larger than the combined decrease in tonnage from all commodities that saw a decline in January.

Intermodal loadings increased 9.6% to 2.4 million MT. Both containerized cargo shipments and trailers loaded onto flat cars contributed to this growth.

The Western Division accounted for 59.2% of the domestic freight loadings, up 4.2% from the same month in 2012 to 13.8 million MT. The remainder was loaded in the Eastern Division, which saw its loadings increase by 9.0% to 9.5 million MT. For statistical purposes, cargo loadings from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the Pacific Coast are classified to the Western Division, while loadings from Armstrong, Ontario, to the Atlantic Coast are classified to the Eastern Division.

Freight traffic received from United States connections declined 3.9% to 2.8 million MT. The drop was the result of decreased non-intermodal loadings.