US coal carload volumes dipped 5.4% week on week, railroad and Association of American Railroads data showed Wednesday.
For the week ended December 10, the AAR reported 87,929 coal carloads traveled US railways, down from 89,753 carloads the previous week, though volumes remained elevated compared with the first half of the year.
Other than the Thanksgiving holiday week, coal volumes have stayed above 87,000 carloads/week since the final week of July, averaging 90,002 carloads during those 20 weeks, compared with 70,914 carloads in first 29 weeks of 2016. Year to date, coal shipments average 78,705 carloads/week.
Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- originated 6,933 coal carloads, down 8.3% from the previous week and down 8.2% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal carload volumes are down 11.6% year to date.
