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Genesee & Wyoming (GWI) recently reported August traffic totaling 82,686 carloads, down 5.4 percent compared with August 2011 volume.

The commodities with the largest drops were "other" traffic, down 41.7 percent to 3,537 units; farm and food products, down 29.8 percent to 7,620 units; and minerals and stone, down 14.8 percent to 11,141 units.

Farm and food products traffic decreased mostly because of reduced shipments in the Australia and Illinois regions, GWI officials said in a prepared statement.

"The shipment decline in the Australia Region was primarily due to an accelerated shipping schedule earlier in 2012, as well as a mechanical failure at an export grain terminal in Adelaide, South Australia," they said. "The repair schedule for the export grain terminal has not yet been finalized. As a result … GWI currently expects its farm and food products traffic to be lower than its initial expectations by approximately 4,000 carloads in the third quarter, with any adverse impact on the fourth quarter dependent on the duration of the terminal outage."

On the plus side, metallic ores volume climbed 25.6 percent in August to 3,526 units, while chemicals and plastic traffic ratcheted up 10.1 percent to 5,846 units, lumber and forest products loads rose 9 percent to 6,415 units, and pulp and paper volume increased 8.6 percent to 9,286 units.

GWI owns 66 regionals and short lines in the United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands and Belgium.