The number of coal carloads that US railroads originated for the week ending Saturday totaled 113,414, down 0.6% from the prior week, but up 3% from the same week a year ago, the Association of American Railroads said Thursday.
For the year, coal carloads originated on US railroads total about 1.3 million, down 1.2% from the same period last year, the AAR said in its weekly rail traffic report. The 2014 year-to-date total is down 9.4% from 2012.
The Canadian railroads, including the US operations of Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, originated 10,034 coal carloads during the week, down 1.6% from the prior week, but up 9.7% from the same week a year ago, according to AAR.
For the year, Canadian-railroad originated coal carloads totaled 103,034, down 3.7% from last year.
US coal production during the week that ended Saturday was estimated at 18.9 million st, according to data the US Energy Information Administration released Thursday. The estimate was 0.7% below last week, but up 0.5% from the same week a year ago.
