US coal carload volumes have declined from last week's year-high level to mark the first drop in volumes since the start of July, according to the Association of American Railroads.
In the week ending August 26, 96,317 coal carloads traveled US railways, the AAR said Wednesday, down 1.6% from a 2017-best 97,873 carloads the previous week but up 5.2% from the year-ago week. Volumes have topped 92,000 carloads for five straight weeks.
Continued volume gains had pushed US coal carload counts to a new year-high mark in each of the previous four weeks.
The count for the year to date jumped 14.4%, or about 362,000 carloads, compared with the first 34 weeks of 2016.
Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- saw originations fall to 7,732 coal carloads, down 3.7% from the previous week but up 5.4% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal volumes are up 4.9% year to date.
