According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 31.7 million tons in May, up 2.4 percent from May 2017.
Freight originating in Canada increased 0.8 percent from the same month last year to 28.0 million tons. Non-intermodal freight rose 2.8 percent to 307,000 carloads in May. The amount of freight loaded into these cars was up 0.9 percent from May 2017 to 24.8 million tons.
In May, the commodities with the largest year-over-year increases in tonnage were fuel oils and crude petroleum (+246 000 tons or +24.0 percent), coal (+231 000 tons or +8.4 percent), other oil seeds and nuts, and other agricultural products (+195 000 tons or +178.8 percent), potash (+146 000 tons or +8.2 percent), and fresh, chilled or dried vegetables (+136 000 tons or +49.7 percent).
Conversely, tonnages declined year over year for iron ores and concentrates (-1 178 000 tons or -25.4 percent) due to a labor dispute at an iron ore mine that continued from April, other basic chemicals (-83 000 tons or -12.1 percent), and wood pulp (-79 000 tons or -12.5 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings rose 1.9 percent year over year to 214,000 units in May. The gain stemmed from a 2.6 percent increase in containers-on-flat-cars. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic decreased 0.2 percent to 3.2 million tons.
Freight traffic received from the United States rose 16.5 percent to 3.7 million tons as a result of increases in both non-intermodal (+16.2 percent) and intermodal (+20.4 percent) freight.