US Intermodal Traffic Up 4.8 Percent

Intermodal shipments on major U.S. railroads in the week ending June 23 rose 4.8 percent year-over-year and slipped 1.5 percent compared to the week prior, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Carload traffic rose 1.4 percent year-over-year and was flat from the previous week. Shipments of grain, metallic ores, nonmetallic minerals, and iron and scrap steel fell on a double-digit basis from the same period a year ago. Coal volume fell 8.9 percent year-over-year.

For the first 25 weeks of 2012, intermodal traffic rose 3.2 percent; carload traffic fell 2.9 percent in the same period.

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Canadian intermodal volume in the week ending June 23 jumped 11.1 percent year-over-year, and carload volume rose 4.6 percent in the same period. So far this year, Canadian intermodal volume is up 7.1 percent year-over-year, and carload traffic is up 3.4 percent.

Mexican intermodal volume last week rose 17.1 percent year-over-year, and carload traffic rose 5.7 percent in the same period. In the first 25 weeks of 2012, intermodal traffic rose 19.4 percent from the same period in 2011, but carload volume fell 2.6 percent.

Contact Mark Szakonyi at mszakonyi@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @szakonyi_joc.