Canadian railways carried 25.3 million metric tons of freight in January, down 2.7 percent from the same month last year. The drop in shipments occurred despite the strong growth in traffic received from the United States.
Non-intermodal freight decreased 6.1 percent to 244,000 carloads. The amount of freight loaded into these cars declined 4.8 percent to 19.8 million mt. Overall, 45 of the 64 commodities shipped by Canadian railways fell during the month. The largest declines in shipments were for wheat (down 228,000 mt), iron ores and concentrates (down 220,000 mt), other refined petroleum and coal products (down 116,000 mt) and wood pulp (down 111,000 mt).
The drop in loadings in January occurred despite strong gains in several commodities, led by coal (up 405,000 mt), fuel oils and crude petroleum (up 314,000 mt), other chemical products and preparations (up 166,000 mt) and potash (up 158,000 mt).
Intermodal loadings fell 7.2 percent to 150,000 units in January. The drop was solely based on decreased containerized cargo shipments, which declined 8.1 percent to 144,000 units. From a tonnage perspective, intermodal traffic was down 5.6 percent to 2.3 million mt.
Rail traffic received from the United States rose 15.6 percent to 3.2 million mt as a result of higher non-intermodal shipments.