Coal news and updates

US railroads originated 116,794 coal carloads during the week ended January 31, up 4.4% from the year-ago week and up 1.2% from the prior week, the Association of American Railroads said.

 

Coal carloads made up 21.3% of all US rail traffic during the week, on an overall volume of 548,478 carloads. In 2014, coal carloads made up 20.3% of all US rail traffic.

 

Year-to-date US coal carload originations totaled 452,594, up 4.4%, or 19,078 carloads, compared with the same period last year.

 

"January was a good start to the year for US railroads, helped by the fact that the winter so far this year hasn't been nearly as bad as it was last year," AAR Senior Vice President John T. Gray said in a statement Wednesday.

 

"The AAR recently estimated that US railroads spent a record $27 billion on capital spending and maintenance expenses in 2014, and we're projecting $29 billion in 2015. This massive spending is making it possible for railroads to move their customers' freight more efficiently and reliably and steadily recover from 2014's service issues."

 

For the week, coal carloads for the four largest US railroads, which include originations and interchange movements, were mostly up, with three railroads reaching yearly highs.

 

BNSF Railway reported a year-high 50,838 weekly coal carloads, up 2.4% from the prior week and up 12.7% from the year-ago week. Coal carloads made up 25.7% of all traffic during the week, and year-to-date coal carloads are up 4.2% compared with the same period last year.

 

It was the most weekly coal carloads for BNSF since a count of 50,874 the first week of January 2012.

 

Union Pacific reported a year-high 34,263 weekly coal carloads, up 0.5% from the prior week and up 4.8% from the year-ago week. Coal carloads made up 18.4% of all traffic during the week, and year-to-date coal carloads are up 2.6% compared with the same period last year.

 

CSX reported a year-high 23,558 weekly coal carloads, up 12.9% from the prior week and up 23% from last year. Coal carloads made up 17.8% of all traffic during the week, and year-to-date coal carloads are up 7.5% from the same period last year.

 

Norfolk Southern reported 21,469 weekly coal carloads, down 1.8% from the prior week but up 7.7% from 2014. Coal carloads made up 14.9% of all traffic during the week. Year-to-date carloads are up 1.2% compared with a year ago.

 

Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- originated 7,532 coal carloads during the week, down 7.7% from the prior week and down 9.1% from last year.

 

 

Source: Platts