Following is a monthly update on United States (rail freight traffic by sector (with Canadian totals), with a focus on carloads. The data in the table is from the December issue of Railway Age, and we have added a column that shows typical car types for ease of reference. Each month, when this data is published, the report is for the second-previous month. Here is the current information reported, which covers in this case the four weeks ending October 31st:
Here are the details for the most recent report:
| Major US Railroads | ||||
| Commodity | Typical Car Type (s) | October2020 | October2019 | % Change |
| Grain | Covered Hopper | 106,027 | 84,470 | 25.52% |
| Farm Products ex. Grain | Covered Hopper, Gondola | 3,851 | 3,401 | 13.23% |
| Grain Mill Products | Covered Hopper | 37,083 | 35,811 | 3.55% |
| Food Products | Boxcar, Tankcar, other | 24,936 | 24,843 | 0.37% |
| Chemicals | Boxcar, Tankcar, other | 122,235 | 124,479 | -1.80% |
| Petroleum & Petroleum Products | Tankcar | 40,923 | 51,122 | -19.95% |
| Coal | Gondola | 238,329 | 294,672 | -19.12% |
| Primary Forest Products | Flatcar, Gondola | 4,136 | 4,991 | -17.13% |
| Lumber & Wood Products | Flatcar | 12,907 | 12,489 | 3.35% |
| Pulp & Paper Products | Boxcar | 20,818 | 20,692 | 0.61% |
| Metallic Ores | Open top Hopper, Gondola | 20,388 | 24,060 | -15.26% |
| Coke | Open top Hopper | 10,538 | 13,164 | -19.95% |
| Primary Metal Products | Gondola, Flatcar, Boxcars | 30,513 | 31,487 | -3.09% |
| Iron & Steel Scrap | Gondola | 15,899 | 12,320 | 29.05% |
| Motor Vehicles & Parts | Autorack, Boxcar, Flatcar | 62,013 | 61,424 | 0.96% |
| Crushed Stone, Sand & Gravel | Open top Hopper, Gondola | 74,933 | 89,208 | -16.00% |
| Nonmetallic Minerals | Open top Hopper, Gondola | 14,077 | 16,957 | -16.98% |
| Stone, Clay & Glass Products | Covered Hopper, Open top Hopper, etc. | 32,843 | 33,090 | -0.75% |
| Waste & Nonferrous Scrap | Gondola | 15,215 | 13,688 | 11.16% |
| All other carloads | n/a | 25,108 | 25,038 | 0.28% |
| Total US Carloads | 912,772 | 977,406 | -6.61% | |
| Canadian Carloads | 316,595 | 320,722 | -1.29% | |
| Combined US & Canadian Carloads | 1,229,367 | 1,298,128 | -5.30% |
Once again, this data allows one to examine the state of the railroad traffic, and therefore to a large extent, the changes that are taking place in American industry. As has been the case for many months, energy industry traffic is again severely impacted by changes in the economy. While there are many sectors that have seen growth, some fairly strong, overall carloads are still down by almost 7 percent. And, mirroring recent trends, Canadian traffic is down overall, but not as badly as US traffic.
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