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YTD US coal rail traffic, production post slight contraction

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YTD US coal rail traffic, production post slight contraction

Total U.S. coal rail traffic for the week ended Jan. 27 slipped by less than 1% year over year to 86,586 carloads, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Year-to-date coal rail traffic went down 6.6% through the week, while overall rail traffic rose 4% year over year to 543,515 carloads and intermodal units.

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BNSF Railway Co. reached 37,052 carloads in the week that ended Jan. 27, climbing 1.1% from the prior week's 36,641 carloads and up by less than 1% from the year-ago period's 36,869 carloads.

Union Pacific Corp.'s coal shipment volumes stood at 21,161 carloads, down 6.6% compared to the previous week's 22,651 carloads, and slid 11.2% from the year-ago period's 23,842 carloads.

Eastern railroad CSX Transportation Inc.'s coal shipment volumes clocked in at 16,155 carloads, up 10.5% from the previous week's 14,622 carloads and up 3.8% from 15,570 carloads in the year-ago week.

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s coal shipment volumes totaled 19,552 carloads, soaring 25.8% from the previous week's 15,537 carloads, but fell 6% from the prior year's 20,801 carloads.

Kansas City Southern Railway Co.'s latest weekly coal shipment volume showed 2,189 carloads, down 15.5% from the previous week's 2,590 carloads. The railroad serves 10 U.S. states and Mexico.

YTD coal output slides 8.8%

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, total U.S. coal production, at 15.3 million tons, fell 3.2% from 15.8 million tons a year ago.

For the 12 months ended Jan. 27, production stood at roughly 765.0 million tons, rising 2.7% year over year, while year-to-date coal output dwindled 8.8% year over year to 54.1 million tons.

The Western region's coal production slipped 2.1% year over year to 8.5 million tons, from 8.7 million tons a year ago.

Coal production from Appalachian mines posted a nearly 1% cutback year over year to 4.0 million tons, from 4.1 million tons in the prior year.

The Interior region's production, at 2.8 million tons, tumbled 9.3% from 3.1 million tons in the year-ago period.

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.