Coal news and updates

Weekly US coal carloads up 4.1% as utilities rebuild inventory

Weekly coal carloads improved in most all categories during the week ended May 31, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) said Thursday, as coal stockpiles continued to build in advance of summer, though it seems unlikely they will make up much more ground.

US railroads originated 112,518 carloads for the week, down 0.1% from the prior week but up 4.1% from the year-ago week, the AAR said.

The increase was helped by year-on-year gains from the major US railroads, including BNSF Railway, Union Pacific and CSX.

For the year, the AAR said US coal carloads totaled more than 2.4 million, up 1.6% from 2013 but down 3.4% from 2012.

The Canadian railroads, including the US operations of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, originated 10,890 coal carloads during the week, up 14.8% from the prior week and up 24.1% from the year-ago week, the AAR said.

For the year, Canadian coal originations totaled 200,079 carloads, down 0.2% from last year.

For both the US and Canada, combined weekly carloads were up 5.5% from the year-ago week, and year-to-date coal carload originations were up 1.4% compared with 2013.

The increase in weekly US carloads comes as US coal stockpiles reached 128.2 million st in the week ended May 31, an analysis from Platts unit Bentek Energy showed. That is still well below the five-year average of 174.7 million st for the same week.

US coal production for the week ended May 31 totaled 19.2 million st, up 2.3% from the year-ago week, the US Energy Information Administration said Thursday. Year-to-date coal production was roughly 407.8 million st, down less than 1% from last year.

For the week, the four largest US railroads reported handling -- which includes originations and interchange movements -- the following weekly coal and coke carloads:

BNSF reported 44,209 weekly coal carloads, up 6.7% from the prior week and up 7.9% from the year-ago week. For the year, the railroad's coal carloads totaled 957,966, up 6.2% compared with 2013.

Union Pacific reported 32,381 weekly coal carloads, up 2.3% from the prior week and up 7.5% from last year. Year-to-date coal carloads totaled 709,234, up 5.3% from last year.

CSX reported 23,654 weekly coal carloads, up 0.8% from the prior week and up 4.8% from last year. For the year, coal carloads totaled 486,274, up 3.2%.

Norfolk Southern reported 24,828 weekly coal carloads, down 4.3% from the prior week but up 1.1% from 2013. For the year, coal carloads totaled 523,632, down 7.6% from last year.

Source: Platts