AAR reports annual declines for U.S. carload and intermodal volumes in April

Both United States rail carload and intermodal volumes were down annually in April, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today.

Carloads saw a 16.1 percent, or 180,598, annual decline at 944,339. And five of the 20 carload commodities tracked by the AAR saw gains compared to April 2015, led by miscellaneous carloads up 25 percent or 4,743, and coke loadings up 16.1 percent or 2,354 carloads. Coal continued its ongoing decline, down 39.7 percent or 160,624 carloads, and petroleum and petroleum products fell 25.1 percent or 15,122 carloads. When removing coal volumes, the AAR said total April carloads were off 2.8 percent, or 19,974, annually.

Intermodal containers and trailers in April at 1,972,828, were off 11.8 percent or 264,327 carloads annually.

“Rail coal traffic continues to suffer due to low natural gas prices and high coal stockpiles at power plants.  Coal accounted for just 26 percent of non-intermodal rail traffic for U.S. railroads in April 2016, down from 36 percent in April 2015 and 45 percent as recently as late 2011,” said AAR Senior Vice President of Policy and Economics John T. Gray in a statement.  “We expect non-coal carloads to strengthen when the economy gets stronger, and we think intermodal weakness in April is probably at least partly a function of high business inventories that need to be drawn down before new orders, and thus new shipments, are made.”

Total carloads for the week ending April 30 were 243,604 carloads, down 14.1 percent compared with the same week in 2015, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 258,441 containers and trailers, down 8.6 percent compared to 2015.