Houston—Weekly US coal carload originations totaled 50,742 in the week ended Dec. 26, down 12.5% from the previous week, Association of American Railroads data showed Dec. 30.
Year on year, originations fell 15.9% -- the largest year-on-year decline in six weeks. Additionally, it was the largest week-on-week drop in 2020.Coal originations produced 12.5% of total US rail traffic, the largest percentage in five weeks.
The five-year average for week 52, is 65,451, leaving the most recent week at a 22.5% deficit, which was the smallest in 40 weeks. The 2020 weekly average number of originations is 57,976, compared with 76,926 in 2019.
Originations totaled just over 3 million in 52 weeks, down 24.6% in the 2019 period.
Canadian coal carload originations totaled 6,553, down 20.5% from the week before and down 6.9% year on year. Through 52 weeks, originations totaled 342,772, down 13.9% from 2019.
From the four major US Class I railroads, carloads totaled 54,876 in week 52, down 17.6% from the year-ago week. Through the year, carloads totaled over 3.2 million, down 25.7% year on year.
BNSF coal carloads totaled 26,180, down 12.8% from the previous week and down 22.7% from the year-ago period. Coal produced 15.8% of all traffic in the most recent week and averaged 14.9% throughout 2020.
Coal carloads on the rail totaled 1.4 million during the year, down 22.2% from 2019.
Coal carloads on Union Pacific totaled 12,092, down 4.7% week on week and down 9.1% from the year-ago week. Out of all weekly traffic, coal took up 9.8%. In 2020, coal carloads averaged 9.4% of all UP traffic.
UP's coal carloads totaled 725,666 over 52 weeks, down 22.2% year on year.
CSX coal carloads were 8,448, down 35.6% from the previous week and down 11.6% year on year. Coal was 8.8% of the weekly traffic, and it averaged 9.9% of all 2020 carloads.
Annual CSX coal carloads ere 581,583, down 25.8% from last year.
Norfolk Southern coal carloads totaled 8,156, down 24.7% week on week, and down 18.5% year on year. Coal was 7.7% of the week's traffic and averaged 8.2% annually.
With 2020 carloads of 541,599, coal traffic was down 37.2% from 2019.
