Railway carloadings

The Canadian railway industry saw a decline in its loadings for the month of May for the first time in four years, as loadings for the majority of the commodity classifications decreased.

Railways loaded 24.3 million metric tonnes of freight in May, a 6.1% decline from May 2007 levels. The drop in loadings was entirely attributable to a decrease in non-intermodal loadings.

Compared with the same month last year, non-intermodal loadings decreased 6.9% to 21.7 million metric tonnes. The decrease in loadings was widespread, as 41 out of the 64 commodity classifications saw a decline in loadings. Among those in decline were four of the five largest commodity classifications by tonnage: wheat, coal, potash and lumber.

The drop in loadings for these four principal commodity classifications was the result of decreased demand inside and outside of Canada. For lumber, in particular, loadings were at their lowest level for the month of May since 1999, as the forest industry continues to face a weak housing market in the United States.

In contrast to the decline in non-intermodal loadings, intermodal loadings increased 2.2% over May 2007 to 2.5 million metric tonnes.

The rise in intermodal loadings was attributable to a rise in both the amount of containers and trailers loaded on flat cars received from connections in Canada and the United States. For the month, container loadings increased 3.5% from May 2007 to over 157,000 units, while trailer loadings increased 12.9% to more than 7,000 units.

Rail freight traffic coming from the United States also increased on a year-over-year basis, with freight traffic increasing 4.6% to 2.8 million metric tonnes.

Available on CANSIM: table 404-0002.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2732.

The May 2008 issue of Monthly Railway Carloadings Survey, Vol. 85, no. 5 (52-001-XWE, free) is now available from the Publications module of our website.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact the Dissemination Unit (toll-free 1-866-500-8400; fax: 613-951-0009; transportationstatistics@statcan.gc.ca), Transportation Division.