Key Factory-Related Cargoes Rise at Top Railroads

Major North American railroads increased their loadings in recent weeks of key raw materials as well as some finished goods related to manufacturing activity.

The numbers suggest that outside of the still-weak housing sector and robust intermodal traffic, a core group of factory-linked rail shipments is regaining strength this month after slowdowns earlier this summer.

Although their total non-intermodal carloadings - which includes bulk commodities such as coal and grain as well as intermediate metal products and final vehicles - edged down in the week ending Aug. 21 to 381,269 shipments from 383,135 a week earlier, the shrinkage was mainly in coal traffic.

However, the continent's seven Class I railroads plus some large regionals that report volume to the Association of American Railroads increased their originations of metallic ores last week to 20,742 railcar loads, the highest level in a month. Their shipments of scrap materials, which are mostly metals headed for recycling and often mixed with more expensive ore, at 9,822 units were the highest since the week ending June 26.

Since both of those categories are raw materials that are needed to make metal-related products from automobiles to appliances, the input shipments point to a mild rise in recent demand from manufacturers.

So do rail loadings of semi-finished metals and metal products. The large railroads picked up 13,463 carloads of this category in the Aug. 21 week, for three straight weeks of steady gains since July.

Railcar shipments of motor vehicles and other equipment, a category that is dominated by autos, reached 21,386 carloads last week for the strongest volume since June.

Chemicals make up the second-largest carload category for railroads, after coal, and are used in a wide range of industrial processes from plastics manufacturing to pharmaceuticals. Last week's chemical shipment originations of 44,021 carloads were down from 44,769 a week earlier. However, this period in August marks the first time since May that chemical loadings topped 44,000 loads for two consecutive weeks.

-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.