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To say crosstie purchases and production rebounded in January after a weak December is an understatement — and a big one at that.

Purchases "leaped up an astonishing 98 percent" to 1.87 million units and production jumped 42 percent to 1.95 million units compared with December totals, according to the Railway Tie Association's (RTA) monthly crosstie market report. In January 2007, tie purchases totaled 1.89 million units and production totaled 1.61 million units.

The January 2008 bounce-backs "support the notion that severe weather played a constraining role at year end," the report states.

Annual 12-month market data shows production has slowly eased to a current 20.8 million ties since peaking at 22.6 million units in September 2006.

"Purchases peaked in February 2007 at 22 million ties, then followed a rather uneven path down to the current 20.3 million," RTA said. "Compared to year-ago levels, both production and purchases are down about 7 percent."

During a 12-month period ending in January, inventories increased 3 percent and the inventory-to-sales ratio reached 0.83, exceeding the five-year average of 0.81.