According to Statistics Canada, Canadian railways transported 30.1 million tons of freight in June, edging up 1.3 percent from June 2021 and the second consecutive month of year-over-year increase in tonnage. Large increases in loadings of iron ores and energy products offset the ongoing declines in grain shipments.
Also contributing to the overall increase were freight loadings from US rail connections, which reached 3.9 million tons in June, a 9.2 percent increase from June 2021.
On a year-to-date basis through June, the cumulative volume of goods moved by rail totaled 179.4 million tons, down 2.7 percent from the same period in 2021. This was the second lowest cumulative total for the January-to-June period in five years, about 6.3 percent (or 12.0 million tons) below the level observed for the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
June's year-over-year increase in total freight carried was the result of higher volumes in domestic non-intermodal loadings (mainly commodities) as well as traffic received from railway connections in the US.
Non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada increased for the second month in a row, edging up 0.6 percent year over year to 23.1 million tons in June, driven by large tonnage increases in certain raw minerals and energy commodities.
Iron ores and concentrates led the pack, with loadings rising 23.9 percent (+865,000 tons) from June 2021, their fourth straight month of year-over-year increases. Some of this increase may reflect lingering effects from production disruptions at a Quebec–Labrador mine site from May to mid-June of 2021, due to a labor dispute.
Year over year, loadings of nickel ores and concentrates were also up (+71 000 tons), more than eight times their levels in June 2021 and the second consecutive month of increases.
Increases in carloadings of some energy commodities continued with rising fuel consumption and industrial production. For instance, loadings of coal posted a fifth consecutive year-over-year increase, rising 12.2 percent (+362,000 tons) from June 2021. This increase reflected strong global demand for industrial energy—in particular Asia—as well as higher gas prices and European energy supply constraints because of the war in Ukraine, creating stronger demand for coal.
In June, intermodal shipments—mainly containers—originating in Canada edged down after two consecutive months of year-over-year increases. Total tonnage slipped 2.7 percent from June 2021 to 3.1 million tons but remained just above the five-year average of 3.0 million tons for June.
Freight loadings from US rail connections hit another high in June (3.9 million tons), 9.2 percent greater than the previous year's loadings for June and above the 3.8 million tons reported in the same month in 2019. In fact, June marked the 15th straight month of year-over-year growth in this traffic.