US oil, product rail volumes rise 6.8% year to date: AAR

Houston (Platts)--15May2014/254 pm EDT/1854 GMT

US rail traffic for petroleum and petroleum products totaled 276,814 carloads so far this year, up 6.8% from the same period a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday.

The year-to-date figure was the largest growth in shipments for any product except grains, which saw year-to-date shipments increase 19%.

For the week ending Friday, US petroleum and petroleum product rail traffic totaled 14,589 rail cars, unchanged from the same week a year ago.

Total US rail traffic increased 6.6% year on year to 564,096 rail cars, while year-to-date traffic rose only 3.9% to about 10.2 million carloads.

Intermodal traffic -- movement by more than one mode of transportation -- increased 7.7% last week and 5.4% so far this year.

Rail traffic is seen as a useful gauge of the health of the US economy.

Canadian petroleum and petroleum products rail traffic increased 13.4% year on year and 6.9% year to date. Unlike the US, overall Canadian rail traffic had fallen 0.7% year to date.

Petroleum and petroleum products rail traffic in Mexico declined 6.9% last week and fell 6.6% year to date.

--Travis Whalen, travis.whalen@platts.com
--Edited by Valarie Jackson, valarie.jackson@platts.com

 

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