According to Statistics Canada, the volume of rail freight carried in Canada totaled 34.4 million tons in May, up 7.8 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Total intermodal and non-intermodal freight loaded in Canada rose 10.4 percent from the same month a year earlier to 30.9 million tons in May 2019. The amount of non-intermodal freight rose 11.5 percent from May 2018 to 27.7 million tons.
The commodity with the largest year-over-year increase in tonnage was iron ores and concentrates (+2.2 million tons, or +63.1 percent). A workers' strike that took place in the mining sector in early 2018 could have had an impact on the transportation of this commodity, which declined markedly in April and May 2018.
Fuel oils and crude petroleum (+619,000 tons, or +48.7 percent), potash (+267,000 tons, or +13.9 percent), coal (+227,000 tons, or +7.6 percent), and gaseous hydrocarbons, including liquid petroleum gas (LPG) (+185,000 tons, or +36.9 percent), also posted large year-over-year increases.
In contrast, tonnages declined for other oil seeds and nuts and other agricultural products (-157,000 tons, or -51.6 percent), other cereal grains (-148,000 tons, or -33.8 percent), colza seeds (canola) (-148,000 tons, or -16.4 percent); lumber (-132,000 tons, or -11.8 percent); and iron and steel, primary or semi-finished (-128,000 tons, or -28.8 percent).
Intermodal freight loadings increased 0.4 percent from May 2018 to 215,000 units. In terms of weight, intermodal traffic increased 1.8 percent to 3.2 million tons.
Overall, freight traffic from the United States fell 11.1 percent to 3.5 million tons as a result of a 15.7 percent decrease in non-intermodal freight.