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US coal rail traffic, production dip in latest week

Total U.S. coal rail traffic for the week ended May 19 slipped less than 1% year over year to 78,519 carloads, according to data from the Association of American Railroads.

Year-to-date coal rail traffic increased by less than 1% through the week, while total rail traffic climbed 3.6% year over year to 546,415 carloads and intermodal units.

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BNSF Railway Co.'s coal shipment volumes clocked in at 33,265 carloads in the week ended May 19, up by less than 1% from last week's 33,170 carloads but down by nearly 1% compared to 33,555 carloads in the year-ago week.

Union Pacific Corp.'s coal shipment volumes this week were at 17,200 carloads, up by less than 1% from 17,126 carloads last week but down 14% from 2017's weekly volume of 20,010 carloads.

Eastern railroad CSX Transportation Inc.'s shipment volumes of coal stood at 14,606 carloads, down 18.3% from last week's 17,879 carloads but up by nearly 1% from 14,510 carloads during the same week in 2017.

Norfolk Southern Corp.'s coal shipment volumes totaled 19,831 carloads for the week, down 2.5% from the prior week's 20,332 carloads but up 12.4% from 17,636 carloads the same week a year ago.

Kansas City Southern Railway Co.'s latest weekly coal shipment volume showed 2,202 carloads, down 40.5% from 1,567 carloads the previous week. The railroad serves 10 U.S. states and Mexico.

US coal production down 2.6% YOY

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, total U.S. coal production for the week inched down 2.6% year over year to 13.8 million tons, compared to 14.1 million tons during the same period in 2017.

For the 52 weeks ended May 19, production was reported at 767.6 million tons, representing a decrease of 1.4% year over year, while year-to-date coal output dropped 1.6% year over year to 288.2 million tons.

The western region's coal production for the week reached 7.6 million tons, a slight increase from the prior year's 7.5 million tons. Data for the Western region covers Powder River Basin mines.

Coal production from Appalachian mines posted a 5% decline year over year to 3.7 million tons, from 3.9 million tons a year ago.

The interior region's production numbers went down 8.9% year over year to 2.5 million tons, from 2.8 million tons the previous year. 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 indicate both cars originated on their lines during the week and cars received from a connecting railroad during the same week.