Market and product

US coal carload counts gained strength last week as volumes continued to swing, railroad and Association of American Railroads data showed Wednesday.

For the week ended October 22, the AAR reported 90,272 coal carloads traveled US railways, up 2.9% from the previous week. Volumes had decreased in consecutive weeks after a year-high 91,943 carloads traveled the rails the last week of September, but despite recent fluctuations, counts have remained at elevated levels for this year.

Year to date, nationwide volumes average 76,716 carloads/week, compared with an 89,661-carload average in the past 13 weeks.

Total US coal carload volumes are down 24.3% year to date, or about 1 million carloads.

Canadian railroads -- which include the US operations of Canadian National, which serves several mines in the Illinois Basin, and Canadian Pacific -- originated 6,047 coal carloads, down 11% from the previous week and down 19.6% from the same week last year.

Canadian coal carload volumes are down 11.9% year to date. - Platts