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MOSCOW (MRC) -- During the week ended
16 January, chemical railcar traffic in North America increased 8.8%
year-over-year (YOY) on gains throughout the region, said Chemweek.
Volume
totaled 47,660 carloads, down 1.9% from the previous week, according to data
released on 20 January by the Association of American Railroads (AAR). On a
four-week basis, volume increased 3.9% from 2020 and 1.6% from 2019 (chart). For
the year to date, chemical railcar traffic in North America is up
7.0%.
Chemical railcar traffic in the US contributed 33,940 carloads to
the total, up 4.4% YOY and down 6.2% from the previous week. For the year to
date, US chemical railcar traffic is up 5.9%. Canadian chemical rail traffic
totaled 12,665 carloads, up 22.8% YOY and up 9.6% from the previous week. For
the year to date, Canadian chemical railcar traffic is up 11.1%.
Chemical
railcar traffic in Mexico totaled 1,055 carloads, a YOY increase of 7.0% and a
sequential increase of 30.2%. For the year to date, Mexican chemical railcar
traffic is down 1.5%. Among the railcar categories tracked by AAR, motor
vehicles and parts, as well as oil and oil products, registered year-on-year
declines of 1.2% and 3.4%, respectively.
For the first two weeks of 2021
ended 16 January, North American chemical railcar traffic was up 7.0% to 96,219
railcar loadings. In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of
chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying
the rest, while in Canada producers rely on rail to ship more than 70% of their
products, with some relying exclusively on rail.
We remind
that Russia's output of chemical products rose in November 2020 by 9.5% year
on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased in the first
eleven months of 2020 by 6.6% year on year, according to Rosstat's data.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation,
polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the
January-November 2020 output. November production of polymers in primary form
rose to 896,000 tonnes from 852,000 tonnes in October. Overall output of
polymers in primary form totalled 9,240,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by
17.1% year on year. |
