STAT Communications Ag Market News

October Rail Traffic Jumps

OTTAWA - Dec 20/12 - SNS -- Canadian railways carried 33 million metric tons (MT) of freight in October, up 5.3% from October 2016.

Freight originating in Canada increased 3.9% from the same month last year to 29.7 million MT. Non-intermodal freight rose 2.7% to 316,000 carloads in October. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 26.5 million MT, up 3.0% from October 2016.

In October, the commodities with the largest year-over-year increases in tonnage were iron ores and concentrates (359 000 MT or +7.5%), coal (319 000 MT or +11.6%), potash (140 000 MT or +9.1%), other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (130 000 MT or +14.4%) and fuel oils and crude petroleum (124 000 MT or +12.1%).

Conversely, tonnages declined for fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (-454 000 MT or -70.4%), fertilizers (excluding potash) (-126 000 MT or -33.8%) and wheat (-91 000 MT or -4.7%) over the same period.

Intermodal freight loadings rose 12.3% to 214,000 units from October 2016 to October 2017. The gain was attributable to increases in both containers-on-flat-cars (+12.4%) and trailers-on-flat-cars (+5.6%). In terms of weight, intermodal traffic rose 12.5% to 3.2 million MT.

Freight traffic received from the United States rose 19.2% to 3.3 million MT, as a result of increases in both non-intermodal (+20.7%) and intermodal (+2.7%) freight from the United States.

Only active subscribers can read all of this article.

If you are a subscriber, please log into the website.

If you are not a subscriber, click here to subscribe to this edition of the STAT website and to learn more about becoming a subscriber.