US coal carload volumes totaled 85,600 in the week ended February 24, down 2.7% from the previous week but up 0.9% from the year-ago week, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.
The total marked the first year-over-year increase in weekly volumes of 2018.
Cumulative volumes the first eight weeks of 2018 are down by 4.5%, or 31,000 carloads, from the same period a year ago.
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 5,520 coal carloads, down 15.4% from the previous week and down 14% from the same week last year.
Canadian coal volumes year to date have slipped 3% from the same 2017 period.
