The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported Thursday that total US rail traffic was mixed for July 2013, with intermodal setting a new July record for average weekly volume and carload volume decreasing slightly overall compared with July 2012.
Commodities with the biggest carload increases in July included petroleum and petroleum products, up 24.9 percent or 13,089 carloads; iron and steel scrap, up 19.4 percent or 3,307 carloads and steel and other primary metal products, up 4.7 percent or 2,337 carloads.
Commodity categories with carload declines last month included coal, down 4.1 percent or 24,072 carloads from July 2012; and grain, down 9.5 percent or 8,433 carloads. Excluding coal and grain, total US carloads were up 3.5 percent, or 24,973 carloads, in July 2013 compared with July 2012.
Intermodal traffic in July totaled 1,218,625 containers and trailers, up 2.5 percent (29,328 units) compared with July 2012. The weekly average of 243,725 units in July 2013 was the highest for any July in history. Carloads originated in July totaled 1,384,742, down 0.5 percent (7,532 carloads) compared with the same month last year.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 31 weeks of 2013 on 13 reporting US, Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 11,487,751 carloads, down 0.4 percent compared with the same point last year, and 9,419,889 trailers and containers, up 3.4 percent compared with last year.