Not much new here in rail trends this week. Just more of the same modest growth. Intermodal was up 3.7% year over year which brings the 12 week moving average to 2.75%. Not bad and not great, but it’s growth. AAR has this week’s details:
“The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported increased weekly rail traffic for the week ending August 17, 2013, with total U.S. weekly carloads of 295,901 carloads, up 0.5 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 256,458 units, up 3.7 percent compared with the same week last year. Total U.S. rail traffic for the week was 552,359 combined carloads and intermodal units, up 2 percent compared with the same week last year.
Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2012, led by petroleum and petroleum products with 13,098 carloads, up 19.6 percent. Commodities showing a decrease compared with the same week last year included grain with 16,621 carloads, down 8 percent.
For the first 33 weeks of 2013, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 9,186,839 carloads, down 1.2 percent from the same point last year, and 8,003,490 intermodal units, up 3.5 percent from last year. Total U.S. traffic for the first 33 weeks of 2013 was 17,190,329 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.9 percent from last year.”
Chart via Orcam Research:
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.