According to Statistics Canada, in September, Canadian railways transported 30.7 million tons of freight, down slightly (-1.9 percent) from September 2022.
The overall freight volume remained just below the previous five-year average of 31.6 million tons for the month of September. While shipments of iron ores and concentrates were down, carloadings of coal and certain non-metallic minerals registered strong gains.
In September 2023, intermodal shipments (mainly containers) originating from Canada led the overall decline in freight for the third month in a row, falling 10.2 percent year over year to 2.8 million tons. Container volumes have declined year over year for 10 straight months.
The September decrease may reflect a continued weakening of demand for imported goods, as Canadian international trade data reported that imports of consumer goods fell 11.4 percent year over year in September.
Loadings of non-intermodal freight (mainly commodities) in Canada were down 1.8 percent year over year to 24.3 million tons in September, led in part by a decrease in carloadings of iron ores and concentrates.
Iron ores and concentrates fell by 9.2 percent (-426 000 tons) in September, compared with the same month in 2022. Similarly, Canada's exports of metal ores and non-metallic minerals decreased year over year in September, as reported by Canadian international merchandise trade.
Loadings from connections with American railways posted a year-over-year increase, climbing 5.2 percent to 3.5 million tons in September. This was the second increase after 11 consecutive months of year-over-year declines.