U.S. rail carload and intermodal volumes seen annual gains, for week ending June 12, reports AAR

United States rail carload and intermodal volumes saw annual gains, for the week ending June 12, according to data recently issued by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Rail carloads—at 241,628—saw a 21.8% annual gain, topping the week ending June 5, at 227,497, and trailing the week ending May 29, at 243,304, respectively.

AAR stated that each of the ten rail carload commodity groups in tracks saw annual gains, including: included coal, up 19,229 carloads, to 69,263; metallic ores and metals, up 8,242 carloads, to 22,789; and chemicals, up 5,489 carloads, to 32,967. The organization noted that “for some rail traffic categories, percentage changes for the current week compared with the same week in 2020 are inflated because of the widespread shutdowns — and subsequent large reduction in rail volumes — that impacted many economic sectors last year at this time.”

Intermodal containers and trailers—at 288,007—increased 14.8% annually, trailing the weeks ending June 12, at 261,247, and June 5, at 286,921.

Through the first 23 weeks of 2021, AAR reported that U.S. rail carloads are up 8.3% annually, to 5,296,418, and intermodal units are up 18.5%, for the same period, to 6,494,976.