US railroads originated 95,822 coal carloads during the week that ended Saturday, down 2.9% from the prior week and 13.4% from the year-ago week, the Association of American Railroads said Wednesday.
With coal stockpiles growing at US utilities largely because of low natural gas prices, coal demand has declined. The weekly total was the lowest since the week that ended July 11, and marked the 17th week this year that coal carloads have dipped below 100,000. Weekly coal carloads never dipped below 100,000 in 2014.
Year-to-date US coal carload originations total nearly 4.2 million, down 9.4% compared with 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 -- originated 7,572 coal carloads during the week, down 2.3% from the prior week and 21% from last year, said the AAR.
For the week that ended October 17, coal carloads for the four largest US railroads, which includes originations and interchange movements, were mixed. BNSF Railway reported 43,659 weekly coal carloads, down 6.9% from the prior week and 4.9% from the year-ago week. For the year, the railroad's coal carloads total 1.8 million, up 3.4% from last year.
Union Pacific reported 27,445 weekly coal carloads, down 0.3% from the prior week and 17.5% from last year. Year-to-date coal carloads for UP total 1.1 million, down 16.2% from last year.
CSX reported 15,162 weekly coal carloads, flat with the prior week but down 30.1% from the year-ago week. Year-to-date coal carloads total 788,234, down 14.2% from the same period last year.
Norfolk Southern reported 19,847 weekly coal carloads, up 5.1% from the prior week, but down 5.9% from the year-ago week. Year-to-date coal carloads total 827,181, down 16.1% from last year.
