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Railway carloadings, August 2017

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Released: 2017-10-26

Railway carloadings, total tonnage

30.8 million tonnes

August 2017

3.2% increase

(12-month change)

The volume of rail freight carried in Canada totalled 30.8 million tonnes in August, up 3.2% from the same month last year.

Chart 1  Chart 1: Railway carloadings, total tonnage shipped
Railway carloadings, total tonnage shipped

Freight originating in Canada increased 1.5% from the same month last year to 27.5 million tonnes. Non-intermodal freight held steady at 293,000 carloads in August. The amount of freight loaded into these cars totalled 24.3 million tonnes, up 0.6% from the same month last year.

Tonnages of wheat (+27.3%), fuel oils and crude petroleum (+28.1%), potash (+14.1%), coal (+3.7%), and iron and steel, primary or semi-finished (+25.1%) were up in August compared with August 2016.

Conversely, tonnages of iron ores and concentrates (-6.9%), fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (-39.4%), other cereal grains (-40.2%), canola (-32.1%), and lumber (-10.2%) shipped by rail declined in August on a year-over-year basis.

Intermodal freight loadings rose 7.0% to 214,000 units from August 2016 to August 2017. The increase stemmed from a 7.2% increase in containers-on-flat-cars and a 0.2% decrease in trailers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 8.9% to 3.2 million tonnes.

Freight traffic received from the United States rose 20.8% to 3.3 million tonnes as a result of a 25.0% increase in non-intermodal freight and a 16.7% decline in intermodal freight from the United States.

Chart 2  Chart 2: Railway carloadings, top commodities shipped
Railway carloadings, top commodities shipped

Lumber

Lumber is the key building material for residential construction. As such, it is consistently in the top commodities, by weight, moved by Canadian railways. A great deal of this lumber is exported to the United States (U.S.). In 2016, for example, over three-quarters (77.7%) of lumber exported was destined for the U.S.

The largest change in the monthly rail carloadings of lumber, however, corresponds to a downturn in the U.S. housing market, rather than a change in the status of the Canada-US trade agreement. American new privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits (seasonally adjusted at annual rate) reached nearly 2.3 million units in September 2005, before falling to a low point of 513,000 in March 2009. The number of tonnes of lumber moved by rail in Canada and the volume of lumber exported from Canada to the U.S. also saw a steep multi-year decline in this period: lumber shipped by rail peaked in March 2006 at 1.6 million tonnes and then fell to a low of just over 450,000 tonnes in January 2010. While the amount of lumber moved by rail has been trending upward ever since, it has not yet returned to the peak reached in 2006.

Chart 3  Chart 3: Lumber moved by rail, 2005 to 2012
Lumber moved by rail, 2005 to 2012

  Note to readers

The Monthly Railway Carloadings Survey collects data, including the number of rail cars, tonnage, units and 20-feet equivalent units, from railways operating in Canada that provide for-hire freight service.

Non-intermodal freight is cargo moved via box cars or loaded in bulk. Intermodal freight is cargo moved via containers and trailers on flat cars.

Data are available for Canada, the eastern division and the western division. For statistical purposes, cargo loadings from Thunder Bay, Ontario to the Pacific Coast are classified to the western division, while loadings from Armstrong, Ontario to the Atlantic Coast are classified to the eastern division.

Data in this release are not seasonally adjusted.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).

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