According to Statistics Canada, Canadian railways transported 31.7 million tons of freight in December, up 11.2 percent from December 2022. This was the second straight month of year-over-year growth and the largest increase in tonnage since January 2023.
Non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada increased 10.2 percent from the same month in 2022, to reach 25.4 million tons in December. Higher shipments of potash, iron ores and some energy products more than offset a continued decline in some agricultural and food products, notably grain.
Intermodal freight loadings in Canada (mainly containers) increased 9.4 percent year over year to 2.8 million tons in December. This marked the first increase since November 2022, following 12 straight months of year-over-year decreases.
Finally, loadings from American railways have increased year over year for five straight months, up 21.0 percent to 3.5 million tons in December.
The total annual rail freight carried in Canada during 2023 was 375.1 million tons, up 2.4 percent from 2022 levels, with most gains in tonnage generated in the early part of the year.
Compared with 2022, non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada increased 4.4 percent to 296.0 million tons in 2023, while intermodal freight traffic was down 7.6 percent to 34.0 million tons—the lowest annual level since 2020. Finally, freight traffic coming from the US rail connections saw an annual decline for the first time since 2020, dipping 2.2 percent from 2022 to 45.0 million tons in 2023.