US weekly coal carloads fall to seven-week low: AAR

Houston — US coal carloads were at a seven-week low 63,045 in the week ended February 15, down 3% from 64,996 a week earlier and 21.4% lower than 80,105 in the year-ago week, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.

The latest week was the lowest total for the corresponding week in over 10 years.

Coal carloads represented 13.2% of all the traffic on US railways, down from 13.4% a week earlier and 15.3% in the year-ago week. It was the lowest ratio for coal carloads since 12% in the week ended March 30, 2019.

Since January 1, cumulative coal carloads are at 476,573, down 14.9% from the same period a year ago.

Coal originations on Canadian railroads -- including the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin – were at 5,155 carloads, up from 4,746 in the prior week, but down from 6,287 in the year-ago week.

For the second straight week, all four major Class I railroads -- Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific and BNSF -- saw week-on-week and year-on-year decreases.

BNSF reported a seven-month low 30,308 coal carloads in the latest week, down 2.1% from the prior week and 14.2% lower than the year-ago week. It was the lowest weekly total since 29,540 in the week ended July 6, 2019.

So far in 2020, total BNSF carloads are at 232,136, down 3.9% from the same period a year earlier.

Union Pacific reported 15,240 carloads, down 3.3% from the previous week and down 30.4% year on year.

Cumulative coal carloads for UP are at 107,111, down 30.3% from the same period a year ago and the lowest total through the first five weeks of a year in over 11 years.

Norfolk Southern saw 11,113 coal carloads in the latest week, down 7.9% from the prior week and 28.8% lower than the year-ago week. Total coal carloads for NS are at 88,994 since January 1, down 24.9% from the same period a year ago.

CSX coal carloads fell 0.5% week on week to 11,902, which was also down 20.4% from the year-ago week.

Since January 1, CSX coal carloads are at 92,763, down 12.5% from a year ago.