INTERMODAL RAIL TRAFFIC APPROACHES PRE-RECESSION LEVELS

Another strong set of numbers this week from the rail sector (via the AAR):

“The Association of American Railroads today reported that rail traffic continues to reflect the sluggish economy with U.S. railroads originating 282,199 carloads for the week ending July 17, 2010, up 5.5 percent compared with the same week in 2009, but down 13.8 percent from pre-recession levels 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.Intermodal traffic totaled 227,661 trailers and containers, up 20.1 percent from the same week a year ago and down only 2.5 percent compared with 2008. Compared with the same week in 2009, container volume increased 22.1 percent and trailer volume rose 10 percent. Compared with the same week in 2008, container volume increased 5.6 percent and trailer volume dropped 32.5 percent.”

“Eleven of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009, with metallic ores, up 208.4 percent, posting the most significant gain. Three commodity groups posted an increase over 2008 levels including farm products, up 13.4 percent, and metallic ores, up 3.5 percent.

Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 3.8 percent from last year, but down 15.7 percent from 2008. In the West, carload volume was up 6.7 percent from last year but down 12.4 percent from two years ago.

For the first 28 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 7,874,125 carloads, up 7.3 percent from 2009, but down 13.2 percent from 2008, and 5,855,507 trailers or containers, up 13.1 percent from 2009, but down 6.4 percent from 2008.”

Source: AAR

Cullen Roche

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.