The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported Wednesday that carload traffic in July totaled 1,376,411 carloads, down 6.5 percent or 95,295 carloads from July 2014. US railroads also originated 1,331,888 containers and trailers in July 2015, up 3.5 percent or 45,538 units from the same month last year. For July 2015, combined U. carload and intermodal originations were 2,708,299, down 1.8 percent or 49,757 carloads and intermodal units from July 2014.
In July 2015, six of the 20 carload commodity categories tracked by the AAR each month saw carload gains compared with July 2014. This included: grain, up 6.2 percent or 5,921 carloads; crushed stone, sand, and gravel, up 1 percent or 1,227 carloads; and coke, up 6.1 percent or 1,176 carloads.
Commodities that saw declines in July 2015 from July 2014 included: coal, down 12.5 percent or 69,519 carloads, petroleum and petroleum products, down 13.6 percent or 10,691 carloads; and primary metal products, down 13 percent or 7,167 carloads.
Excluding coal, carloads were down 2.8 percent or 25,776 carloads in July 2015 from July 2014.
"Railroads are overexposed, relative to the economy in general, to the energy sector. Put another way, changes in the energy sector are having a bigger effect on rail traffic than they are on the economy as a whole," said AAR Senior Vice President Policy and Economics John T. Gray. "For that reason, we don't think declines in overall rail carloads in recent months are necessarily reflective of fundamental weakness in the broader economy."