Railcar Loadings Up 6.9%

OTTAWA - Sep 27/17 - SNS -- The volume of rail freight carried in Canada totalled 30.0 million metric tons (MT) in July, up 6.9% from the same month last year, according to Statistics Canada.

Freight originating in Canada increased 3.8% from the same month last year to 26.5 million MT. Non-intermodal freight increased 3.5% to 282,000 carloads in July. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 23.5 million MT, up 3.3% from the same month last year.

Tonnages of fuel oils and crude petroleum (+40.5%), wheat (+10.0%), iron ores and concentrates (+3.1%), coal (+4.7%) and potash (+7.7%) were up in July compared with July 2016.

Conversely, tonnages of canola seeds (-10.6%), other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (-44.7%), lumber (-6.2%), sulphur (-9.9%) and wood chips (-22.2%) shipped by rail declined in July on a year-over-year basis.

Intermodal freight loadings rose 8.2% to 206,000 units from July 2016 to July 2017. The gain stemmed from an 8.4% increase in containers-on-flat-cars and a 2.4% decline in trailers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 8.1% to 3.0 million MT.

Freight traffic received from the United States rose 39.1% to 3.4 million MT, as a result of a 45.0% increase in non-intermodal freight and a 16.2% decline in intermodal freight from the United States.