Rail Week Ending 11 October 2014: Continued Strong Growth
Econintersect: Week 41 of 2014 shows same week total rail traffic (from same week one year ago) grew according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) traffic data. Rail growth this week continues to demonstrate an improving economy - and the rate of growth compared to the rolling averages one year ago accelerated.
This analysis is looking for clues in the rail data to show the direction of economic activity - and is not necessarily looking for clues of profitability of the railroads. The weekly data is fairly noisy, and the best way to view it is to look at the rolling averages which are continuing to show a strong growth cycle.
| Percent current rolling average is larger than the rolling average of one year ago | Current quantities accelerating or decelerating | Current rolling average accelerating or decelerating compared to the rolling average one year ago | |
| 4 week rolling average | 4.4% | decelerating | accelerating |
| 13 week rolling average | 4.2% | accelerating | decelerating |
| 52 week rolling average | 4.4% | accelerating | accelerating |
A summary of the data from the AAR:
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported increased U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Oct. 11, 2014 with 298,376 total carloads, up 4.3 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 273,436 units, up 4.8 percent compared with the same week last year. Total combined U.S. weekly rail traffic was 571,812 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.6 percent compared with the same week last year.
Eight of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2013, including petroleum and petroleum products with 16,333 carloads, up 19.5 percent, and nonmetallic minerals with 38,860 carloads, up 12.2 percent.
For the first 41 weeks of 2014, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 11,920,873 carloads, up 3.6 percent compared with the same point last year, and 10,627,448 units, up 5.5 percent from last year. Total combined U.S. traffic for the first 41 weeks of 2014 was 22,548,321 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.5 percent from last year.
Coal is over 1/3 of the total railcar count, and this week is 7.0% higher than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2013. The table below removes coal and grain from the changes in the railcar counts as neither of these commodities is economically intuitive.
| This Week | Carloads | Intermodal | Total |
| This week Year-over-Year | 4.3% | 4.8% | 4.6% |
| Ignoring coal and grain | 5.6% | ||
| Year Cumulative to Date | 3.6% | 5.5% | 4.5% |
[click on graph below to enlarge]
Current Rail Chart
/images/z rail1.png
From EIA.gov:
For the week ended October 11, 2014:
- Estimated U.S. coal production totaled approximately 19.2 million short tons (mmst)
- This production estimate is 3.6% higher than last week's estimate and 7.0% higher than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2013
- Coal production east of the Mississippi River totaled 7.8 mmst
- Coal production west of the Mississippi River totaled 11.4 mmst
- U.S. year-to-date coal production totaled 772.8 mmst, 0.1% lower than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2013
Disclosure: None.
Comments
