US coal carload volumes fell slightly last week from the week prior, but topped year-ago counts for only the second time this year, railroad and Association of American Railroads data showed Wednesday.
For the week that ended December 17, AAR reported that 87,219 coal carloads traveled US railways, down a modest 0.8% from 89,929 carloads the previous week.
But volumes were 2.5% above 85,021 carloads in the same week in 2015. Year-ago volumes were last surpassed in the week that ended November 19, with counts up 1.7% to a year-high 94,751 compared with 92,998 in 2015.
Coal rail shipments plunged in December 2015, with a warm winter and sliding natural gas prices wiping out demand. Coal carload counts fell to year-low marks in each of the final weeks of last year, dropping to 85,021, then 70,350 and finally 67,002.
Year to date, US coal shipments fell 21%, or 1.05 million carloads.
Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- originated 6,962 coal carloads, up 0.4% from the previous week but down 11.7% from the same week a year ago. Canadian coal carload volumes are slid 11.6% year to date.
