North American rail traffic down 4.4% for the week ending March 4

The Association of American Railroads, AAR, reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending March 4. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 474,191 carloads and intermodal units, down 6.3% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending March 4 were 237,413 carloads, down 1% compared with the same week in 2022, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 236,778 containers and trailers, down 11.1% compared to 2022. Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2022. They included coal, up 3,612 carloads, to 72,903; petroleum and petroleum products, up 1,320 carloads, to 10,523; and motor vehicles and parts, up 995 carloads, to 14,264. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2022 included grain, down 4,309 carloads, to 20,522; nonmetallic minerals, down 1,312 carloads, to 31,204; and metallic ores and metals, down 1,244 carloads, to 19,124. North American rail volume for the week ending March 4, on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 341,889 carloads, up 1.9% compared with the same week last year, and 311,197 intermodal units, down 10.4% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 653,086 carloads and intermodal units, down 4.4%. North American rail volume for the first nine weeks of 2023 was 5,750,477 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.5% compared with 2022. Publicly traded companies in the space include CSX (CSX), Canadian National (CNI), Canadian Pacific (CP), Kansas City Southern (KSU), Norfolk Southern (NSC) , Union Pacific (UNP), Greenbrier (GBX), Trinity Industries (TRN), FreightCar America (RAIL) and Wabtec (WAB). Reference Link