AAR reports another week of declining volumes

United States rail carload and intermodal volumes again saw declines for the week ending July 23, according to data issued by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Carloads were down 8 percent at 261,748, which was below the week ending July 16 at 262, 202 and ahead of the week ending July 9 at 228,615.

The AAR said that four of the 10 carload commodity groups it tracks saw annual gains, including miscellaneous carloads, up 28.3 percent to 10,916 carloads; grain, up 9.2 percent to 24,038 carloads; and chemicals, up 2.5 percent to 30,432 carloads. Petroleum and petroleum products dropped 27.5 percent to 10,260 carloads; coal fell 19.4 percent to 83,677 carloads; and motor vehicles and parts, were off 13.8 percent to 14,615 carloads.

Intermodal containers and trailers fell 1.7 percent to 266,322 and topped the week ending July 16 at 258,020 and the week ending July 9 at 215,498.

On a year-to-date basis through the first 29 weeks of 2016, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,046,228 carloads, down 12.1 from the same point last year; and 7,452,843 intermodal units, down 2.8 percent from last year.