Thanks to growth in the West, US coal carload volumes increased to a new year-high level for the third consecutive week, the most recent railroad and Association of American Railroads data showed.
For the week ending August 12 the AAR reported 94,593 coal carloads traveled US railways, up 2.2% from the previous week and up 6.4% from the year-ago week. Powder River Basin shippers BNSF (41,545 carloads) and Union Pacific (25,942 carloads) each reported year-high coal volumes for the week.
Nationwide coal volumes have now increased in five straight weeks. Counts year to date are up 15%, or about 349,000 carloads, compared to the first 32 weeks of 2016.
Canadian railroads -- including the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- saw originations slip to 7,118 coal carloads, down 6.8% from the previous week but up 12.7% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal volumes are up 4.7% year to date.
