In the week to February 15, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said that US coal carloads hit a seven-week low.
Last week, the coal carloads went down by 3% week-on-week to 63,045 and by 21.4% year-on-year.
Coal carloads made up of 13.2% of US railways traffic, down from 13.4% in the previous week and 15.3% in the same period a year ago. It was the lowest level since March 30, 2019.
So far in 2020, the cumulative coal carloads are down by 14.9% year-on-year at 476,573.
Four major Class 1 railroads which are Norfolk Southern, CSX, Union Pacific and BNSF — faced both week-on-week and year-on-year decreases.
BNSF posted a seven-month low 30,308 coal carloads last week, down by 2.1% from the prior week and 14.2% lower than the year-ago week. It was the lowest weekly total since July 6, 2019. So far this year, total BNSF carloads are at 232,136, down by 3.9% on a yearly basis.
Union Pacific (UP) reported 15,240 carloads, lower than 3.3% from the previous week and down 30.4% year-on-year. Cumulative coal carloads for UP are at 107,111, slumping by 30.3% from the same period a year ago and the lowest total through the first five weeks of a year in more than 11 years.
Norfolk Southern noted 11,113 coal carloads in the latest week, a 7.9% decrease from the prior week and 28.8% lower than the year-ago week. Total coal carloads for NS are at 88,994 since January 1, down by 24.9% from the same period a year ago.
CSX coal carloads dropped by 0.5% week-on-week to 11,902, and also down by 20.4% from the year-ago week. Since the start of the year, CSX coal carloads are at 92,763, down by 12.5% from a year ago.
