trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/-5z-rCvG0s7CPqnJAA3TnQ2 content esgSubNav
In This List

US coal rail traffic, production post modest increases in latest week

Podcast

Next in Tech | Episode 49: Carbon reduction in cloud

Blog

Using ESG Analysis to Support a Sustainable Future

Research

US utility commissioners: Who they are and how they impact regulation

Blog

Q&A: Datacenters: Energy Hogs or Sustainability Helpers?


US coal rail traffic, production post modest increases in latest week

Total U.S. coal rail traffic for the week that ended Dec. 2 inched up 1% year over year to 90,747 carloads, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Year-to-date coal rail traffic rose 8.6% through the week, while overall rail traffic went up 3.5% year over year to 572,794 carloads and intermodal units.

SNL Image

BNSF Railway Co. reached 39,569 carloads in the week that ended Dec. 2, up 7.4% from the prior week's 36,832 carloads but down 3.2% from the year-ago period's 40,871 carloads.

Union Pacific Corp.'s coal shipment volumes stood at 22,916 carloads, down 11.4% from the previous week's 25,872 carloads and 1% from the year-ago period's 23,149 carloads.

Eastern railroad CSX Transportation Inc.'s coal shipment volumes clocked in at 18,139 carloads, up 35.8% from the previous week's 13,355 carloads but down 2.1% from 18,531 carloads in the year-ago week.

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s coal shipment volumes totaled 20,194 carloads, up 31.9% from the previous week's 15,308 carloads and 23.5% from the prior year's 16,351 carloads.

Kansas City Southern Railway Co.'s latest weekly coal shipment volume showed 3,091 carloads, up by less than 1% from the previous week's 3,067 carloads. The railroad serves 10 U.S. states and Mexico.

Recovery in year-to-date coal output lingers at 8%

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, total U.S. coal production rose 9% year over year to 15.7 million tons, from 14.4 million tons during the same period in 2016.

For the 12 months that ended Dec. 2, production stood at roughly 796.6 million tons, increasing 10.1% year over year, while year-to-date coal output improved 8.2% year over year to 724.5 million tons.

The Western region's coal production, at 9.0 million tons, edged up 8.1% from the previous year's 8.3 million tons. Data for the Western region covers Powder River Basin mines.

Coal production from Appalachian mines went up 13% year over year to 3.9 million tons, from 3.4 million tons a year ago.

The Interior region's production posted a 6.5% recovery to 2.8 million tons from the prior year's 2.7 million tons. Interior region data covers mines in the Illinois Basin.

The EIA's production data is derived from rail carload estimates.

Data collected by S&P Global Market Intelligence from railroads indicates both cars originated on their lines during the week and cars received from a connecting railroad during the same week.