US weekly coal carloads fall to nearly four-year low: AAR

Houston — US coal carloads were at a near four-year low 58,659 in the week ended March 7, the lowest total since 58,166 in the week ended April 9, 2016, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.

The latest week was down 5.6% from a week earlier and 23.4% lower than the year-ago week. It was also the lowest corresponding week in over 10 years.

Coal carloads represented 12.7% of all the traffic on US railways, down from 13% a week earlier and 15% in the year-ago week.

Since January 1, cumulative coal carloads have reached 660,924, down 17.6% from the same period a year ago.

However, coal originations on Canadian railroads – including the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin – were at a 23-week high of 8,414 carloads, up 20.2% on week and 16.5% on year.

Of the four major Class I railroads – Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific and BNSF – only CSX saw week-on-week increases. However, all four railroads saw yearly declines.

BNSF reported an 11-month low 25,524 coal carloads in the latest week, down 4.7% from the prior week and 21.5% lower than the year-ago week. It was the lowest weekly total since 22,048 in the week ended April 6, 2019.

So far in 2020, total BNSF carloads are at 314,644, down 8.9% from the same period a year earlier.

Union Pacific reported a 10-week low 13,825 carloads, down 10.9% from the previous week and down 11.1% year on year.

Cumulative coal carloads for UP were at 151,744, down 27.2% year on year.

CSX coal carloads climbed 4.2% week on week to 12,650, but fell 18.9% year on year.

Since January 1, CSX coal carloads were at 130,540, down 16% from a year ago.

Norfolk Southern saw 10,560 coal carloads in the latest week, down 9.5% from the prior week and 43.7% lower than the year-ago week.

Total coal carloads for NS are at 120,039 since January 1, down 30.7% from the same period a year ago.