Railcar Handle Up in April

OTTAWA - Jun 24/15 - SNS -- Canada's railways hauled 1.7% more cargo than last year during April, moving 30.5 million metric tons (MT) in April, up 1.7% from the same month last year.

Freight originating in Canada and destined within Canada and to other parts of the world rose 2.5% to 27.1 million MT. These shipments are composed 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).

Non-intermodal freight rose 3.0% to 296,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 24.2 million MT, up 2.5%. The gain was attributable to an increase in freight loadings in several commodity groupings, particularly iron ores and concentrates (up 1.3 million MT), other chemical products and preparations (up 115 000 MT) and other oil seeds and nuts (up 98 000 MT).

Intermodal freight loadings rose 3.2% to 191,000 units in April. From a tonnage perspective, traffic increased 2.8% to 2.9 million MT, largely resulting from a rise in containerized cargo shipments.

Freight traffic received from the United States decreased 4.6% to 3.3 million MT, as a result of a decline in both non-intermodal and intermodal shipments.