AAR reports volume gains for week ending April 21

TheAssociation of American Railroads (AAR)reported that United States rail carload and intermodal volumes each saw annual volume gains for the week ending April 21.

Carloads headed up 3.5% to 264,522, which topped the weeks ending April 14 and April 7 at 258,123 and 261,898, respectively.

The AAR said that seven of the ten carload commodity it tracks were up annually for the week, including: coal, up 3,922 carloads, to 80,608; nonmetallic minerals, up 3,328 carloads, to 39,387; and grain, up 2,424 carloads, to 25,938. Commodity groups that posted decreases compared with the same week in 2017 were metallic ores and metals, down 1,207 carloads, to 23,972; petroleum and petroleum products, down 995 carloads, to 9,356; and farm products excl. grain, and food, down 511 carloads, to 15,542.

Intermodalcontainers and trailers rose 8.9% annually to 274,873, which trailed the week ending April 14 at 276,075 and topped the week ending April 7 at 263,007.

Through the first 16 weeks of 2018, U.S. rail carloads are up 0.4% at 4,080,772, and intermodal units are up 5.6% at 4,310,336.