US railroads hauled the highest number of carloads so far this year in the week that ended Saturday, partly driven by low stockpiles at US utilities and pressure from producers to move more coal.
The Association of American Railroads said Thursday that weekly coal carloads originated on all US railroads totaled 116,881, up 0.1% from the same week a year ago and 0.8% from the prior week. It was the highest number of carloads since 118,391 for the week that ended September 14, 2013.
Coal carloads made up 20.3% of all US traffic during the week that ended August 2, also the busiest week for US railroads in terms of total traffic, posting a year-to-date high of 574,552 weekly carloads.
Year-to-date, US coal carloads total more than 3.4 million, up 0.7% against last year's pace, but down 3.8% compared with 2012.
Canadian railroads, including the US operations of Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, originated 8,012 coal carloads during the week, down 9.6% from the prior week and down 19.9% from the year-ago week, said the Washington-based AAR.
US coal production totaled roughly 19.5 million st for the week, said the US Energy Information Administration Thursday, up 0.5% from the prior week but down 0.3% against last year.
Still, a backlog in rail transportation is being partly blamed for low coal stockpiles at US utilities. As of last week, stockpiles were estimated to be roughly 26% below normal, according to Bentek Energy, a unit of Platts.
A number of utilities made public their concerns about the backlog, although the railroads generally say they are working to improve performance.
The backlog also has cut into revenues at many coal producers, including Arch Coal, Foresight Energy and Alpha Natural Resources.
For the week, the four largest US railroads reported handling (which includes originations and interchange movements) the following weekly coal carloads:
BNSF reported 44,243 weekly coal carloads, up 2.8% from the prior week but down 2.2% from the same week a year ago. For the year, the railroad's coal carloads totaled about 1.332 million, up 2.8% from last year. But the railroad's pace against last year continues to deteriorate, having fallen for 10 straight weeks since the week ended May 31, when its year-to-date volume was up 6.2%.
Union Pacific reported 35,842 weekly coal carloads, its highest total of the year. Its weekly volumes were up 1.5% from the prior week and up 6% from last year. Year-to-date coal carloads total about 1.006 million, up 2.5% from last year.
CSX reported 23,183 weekly coal carloads, up 2.1% from the prior week and up 1.2% from last year. For the year, coal carloads total 687,126, up 5.3%.
Norfolk Southern reported 24,694 weekly coal carloads, down 2.1% from the prior week and down 1.4% from 2013. For the year, coal carloads total 744,908, down 5.1% from last year, as the railroad continues to improve its pace against last year's total.
