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For the week ending Aug. 18, U.S. railroads reported 293,916 carloads, down 2.1 percent, and 247,224 containers and trailers, up 3.6 percent compared with volumes from the same week last year, according to the Association of American Railroads.
 
Ten of 20 carload commodity groups posted gains, led by petroleum products (45.6 percent), farm products excluding grain (37.4 percent), and lumber and wood products (16.4 percent). Metallic ores traffic declined 29 percent and waste/nonferrous scrap carloads fell 25.6 percent.
 
For the week, Canadian railroads reported 76,823 carloads, down 1.4 percent, and 53,954 intermodal loads, up 4 percent year over year. Mexican railroads’ weekly carloads climbed 10.7 percent to 15,873 units and intermodal volume soared 34.1 percent to 12,838 units.
 
Through 2012’s first 33 weeks, 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads originated 12,294,263 carloads, down 1.3 percent, and 9,726,638 containers and trailers, up 4.6 percent compared with the same 2011 period.