According to Statistics Canada, in February, the volume of cargo carried by Canadian railways reached 26.7 million tons of freight, edging down 2.4 percent from February 2021 levels. Higher rail carloadings of some energy products helped to offset the ongoing, sharp decline in grain shipments.
While this marked the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year decline in tonnage, the overall freight volume was just below the five-year average of 27.0 million tons for February.
The decline in total freight carried in February reflected a lower volume of domestic loadings, both non-intermodal (mainly commodities) and intermodal (mainly containers).
Non-intermodal freight loadings in Canada decreased for the sixth month in a row, down 5.6 percent year over year to 20.5 million tons in February, led by ongoing, sharp declines in the loadings of some agricultural and food products―in particular, grain.
Significant decreases were also reported for iron ores and concentrates, with loadings dipping by 7.1 percent (-310,000 tons) year over year in February, representing the third consecutive month of decline.
These above-mentioned tonnage declines were partially offset by increases in carloadings of some energy commodities. Coal led the pack, with loadings rising sharply by 38.9 percent (+904,000 tons) year-over-year in February, the largest gain in tonnage in almost nine years.
The overall increase in railway movements of energy commodities is indicative of higher volumes, which, along with higher prices, pushed exports of energy products to record levels in February as reported in the Canadian international merchandise trade release.
Domestic intermodal shipments—mainly containers—continued their decline for a sixth straight month, down 6.2 percent year over year to 2.6 million tons in February. The extent to which this slide is related to ongoing supply chain disruptions caused by container imbalances and port congestion is unclear.
In February, freight traffic arriving from the United States remained well above the volume posted in the previous year for the 12th month in a row. Tonnage increased by 25.4 percent year-over-year to 3.6 million tons—the highest level ever recorded for the month of February.