Coal news and updates

Coal car loads originated by US railroads totaled 111,269 in the week that ended Saturday, up 6.4% from the corresponding week of 2013, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday in its weekly traffic report.

 

In the year-to-date period through Saturday, total US-originated coal carloads totaled 430,476, essentially unchanged from the same period of last year, AAR said.

 

In the week ended Saturday, Canadian railroads, including the US operations of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, originated 8,127 coal carloads, down 8.9% from the year-ago level, AAR said.

 

Coal carloads originated by the Canadian railroads for the year-to-date period totaled 32,288, up 3.1% year on year.

 

For the week ended January 25, the four largest US railroads reported handling (including originations and interchange) the following weekly coal and coke carloads:

 

BNSF Railway -- 48,077 weekly coal carloads, up 13.5% from the same period of 2013 and the highest number since the week ended July 20. In the year-to-date period, BNSF's coal carloads are up 7.6% from the same period last year.

 

Union Pacific -- 33,455 weekly coal carloads, up 12.2% from the year-ago week. Year-to-date coal carloads total 133,424, up 5.8% from last year.

 

CSX -- 20,196 weekly coal carloads, up 2.5% from the year-ago week. For the year to date, coal carloads total 76,827, down 5.8%.

 

Norfolk Southern -- 20,507 weekly coal carloads, down 8.5% from the year-ago week. Year-to-date coal carloads total 81,010, down 16.3% from last year.

 

Weekly US carload originations of coke, which includes petroleum coke and coke from coal, totaled 3,704 for the week that ended Saturday, up 2.3% from 2013, according to the AAR. Year-to-date coke carloads total 14,089, down 1.5% from last year.

 

BNSF reported 627 coke carloads during the week, up 23.4% from last year. Year-to-date coke carloads total 2,245, up 12.4% from last year.

 

Union Pacific reported 444 weekly coke carloads, up 8.6% from the year-ago week. For the year, coke carloads total 2,006, up 5.2% from last year.

 

CSX reported 1,166 weekly coke carloads, up 1% from the year-ago week. For the year, coke carloads total 4,710, down 7.3%.

 

Norfolk Southern reported 1,133 weekly coke carloads, up 7.8% from the year-ago week. For the year, coke carloads total 3,848, up 3%.

 

Source: Platts