According to Statistics Canada, Canadian railways carried 33.0 million tons of freight in October, down 5.4 percent compared with October 2018.
The non-intermodal freight loadings were largely responsible for the shortfall in the overall volume, declining 6.0 percent to 26.6 million tons compared with the same period in 2018. The decline was widespread across many of the commodity groups carried by Canadian railways. Significant decreases were reported in potash (-34.5 percent or -620,000 tons), fuel oils and crude petroleum (-23.9 percent or -515,000 tons), other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (-38.3 percent or -222,000 tons), canola (-13.1 percent or -168,000 tons) and lumber (-13.9 percent or -133,000 tons). This decline reflects a number of factors, including a temporary slowdown in global demand for potash, the continuation of crude petroleum production limits in Alberta and the delays in harvesting this year due to wet weather conditions in Western Canada.
Partly offsetting these declines were modest increases in loadings of wheat (+15.7 percent or +319,000 tons), iron ores and concentrates (+4.3 percent or +209,000 tons) and coal (+5.2 percent or +159,000 tons).
Over the same period, freight traffic coming from US rail connections decreased 5.9 percent to 3.2 million tons. Conversely, intermodal freight traffic in Canada continued to hold steady, increasing 0.7 percent from the same period last year to 3.2 million tons.