Another week, another strong set of rail figures (via the AAR):
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported solid gains in weekly rail traffic, with U.S. railroads posting the highest intermodal volume for 2010 and the highest container count on record. For the week ending Sept. 18, 2010, intermodal traffic on U.S. railroads totaled 240,013 trailers and containers, up 16.9 percent from the same week in 2009, and up 2.4 percent compared with 2008. Container volume last week increased 18.8 percent compared with 2009, and rose 11.4 percent compared with 2008. Trailer volume last week rose 6.5 percent compared with 2009, but dropped 30.8 percent compared with 2008.
U.S. railroads originated 304,679 carloads for the week, up 8.1 percent compared with the same week in 2009, but down 2.4 percent from the same week in 2008. In order to offer a complete picture of the progress in rail traffic, AAR reports 2010 weekly rail traffic with comparison weeks in both 2009 and 2008.
Seventeen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009 with only waste and scrap and non-metallic minerals, both down 3.3 percent, posting declines. Metallic ores, up 94.6 percent, led those commodity groups with increases from 2009. Compared with 2008, all but six commodity groups posted declines. Leaders among the groups posting increases from 2008 were farm products excluding grain, up 23.8 percent; chemicals, up 23.5 percent, and grain, up 20.5 percent.”
Source: AAR
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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