According to Statistics Canada, in August, Canadian railways transported 30.6 million tons of freight, down 2.4 percent from August 2022 levels and marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year decline.
The overall freight volume in August 2023 was just below the five-year average of 31.5 million tons for this month. While shipments of containers and certain energy products were down significantly, carloadings of some agricultural and food products registered strong gains.
The decline in total freight carried in August reflected lower volumes across all types of rail operations: non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities) and intermodal loadings (mainly containers), as well as freight traffic from connections with American railways.
Intermodal shipments originating from Canada led the overall decline in freight for the second month in a row in August, falling 11.6 percent year over year to 2.9 million tons. Container volumes have declined year over year for nine straight months, and August was the second-lowest volume recorded for this month in seven years.
In August, non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada edged down 0.8 percent year over year to 23.9 million tons, driven by sharp declines in some energy-based commodities.
Freight traffic received from connections with US railways saw a year-over-year decline for the 12th consecutive month, down 4.2 percent to 3.8 million tons in August.