Railway carloadings, September 2013
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Released: 2013-11-27
Canadian railways carried 29.4 million tonnes of freight in September, a 9.0% increase over the same month last year. The gain was driven by robust demand for coal, which accounted for half of the overall growth in tonnage of domestic non-intermodal shipments.
Rail freight originating in Canada and destined within Canada and other parts of the world advanced 8.3% to 25.8 million tonnes. These shipments are composed of non-intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk) and intermodal freight (that is, cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars).
Non-intermodal freight rose 6.9% in September to 284,000 carloads. The volume of these shipments reached 23.3 million tonnes, up 8.8%. The commodities with the largest impact, from a tonnage perspective, were coal (up 946 000 tonnes), iron ores and concentrates (up 274 000 tonnes), potash (up 222 000 tonnes) and fuel oil and crude petroleum (up 214 000 tonnes).
Intermodal freight rose 4.3% to 2.5 million tonnes in September. Both containerized cargo shipments and trailers loaded on flat cars saw increased activity during the month.
Rail freight traffic received from the United States advanced 14.1% in September to 3.7 million tonnes. The gain was primarily the result of increased non-intermodal freight loadings.
Note to readers
All the data in this release are not seasonally adjusted.
The September 2013 issue of Monthly Railway Carloadings, Vol. 90, no. 9 (Catalogue number52-001-X), is now available from the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications.
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