Iron ore price rises on firmer steel outlook, but trade tensions cap gains
Lower Chinese steel product inventory driven by robust exports also supported iron ore prices above $100/t.
Traffic totals for the railways are getting skunked by miners, according to the Association of American Railroads which released its totals for mixed weekly rail traffic ending Nov. 10, 2012.
Comparing this year’s cummulative 45-week totals with last year, coal is off 10.5%, metallic ores are down 5.7% and iron and steel scrap declined 6.2%.
Other decliners were grain and chemicals.
However petroleum products are up a whopping 44.1% from last year. The natural gas boom is real.
Table showing Weekly Traffic of Major U.S. Railroads is here>>
AAR REPORTS MIXED WEEKLY RAIL TRAFFIC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAAR Reports Mixed Weekly Rail Traffic
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nov. 15, 2012 – The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported mixed weekly rail traffic for the week ending November 10, 2012, with U.S. railroads originating 283,414 carloads, down 5.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal volume for the week totaled 249,531 trailers and containers, up 1.9 percent compared with the same week last year.
Twelve of the 20 carload commodity groups posted increases compared with the same week in 2011, with petroleum products, up 45.5 percent; farm products excluding grain, up 24 percent, and motor vehicles and equipment, up 13.6 percent. The groups showing a decrease in weekly traffic included metallic ores, down 20.9 percent; coal, down 15.5 percent, and grain, down 9.8 percent.
Weekly carload volume on Eastern railroads was down 5.7 percent compared with the same week last year. In the West, weekly carload volume was down 5.2 percent compared with the same week in 2011.
For the first 45 weeks of 2012, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 12,784,473 carloads, down 3 percent from the same point last year, and 10,694,270 trailers and containers, up 3.4 percent from last year.
Canadian railroads reported 76,208 carloads for the week, even compared with the same week last year, and 53,860 trailers and containers, up 9 percent compared with 2011. For the first 45 weeks of 2012, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,475,452 carloads, up 2.1 percent from the same point last year, and 2,330,527 trailers and containers, up 6.9 percent from last year.
Mexican railroads reported 15,155 carloads for the week, up 3.2 percent compared with the same week last year, and 10,319 trailers and containers, up 14.7 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 45 weeks of 2012 is 648,236 carloads, up 0.4 percent compared with the same point last year, and 450,899 trailers and containers, up 19.8 percent from last year.
Combined North American rail volume for the first 45 weeks of 2012 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 16,872,161 carloads, down 1.9 percent compared with the same point last year, and 13,475,696 trailers and containers, up 4.5 percent compared with last year.
Image from Flickr commons
