Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Random Look At US Rail Traffic -- Week 28, Ending July 13, 2013 -- Lots Of Red

The link to the PDF.

Two story lines jump out:
  • no evidence of any economic recovery; lots of red. A lot.
  • if it weren't for "petroleum and petroleum products" more than just the rails would be in trouble
Cumulative, year-to-date:
  • grain shipments were down almost 17%
  • motor vehicles up 2.3% year-to-date, cumulative, but were down almost 20% this week vs same week one year ago
Cumulative, year-to-date, it was all red except for:
  • forest products, up 2.3%
  • motor vehicles and parts, up 2.6%
  • nonmetallic minerals and products (fracking sand?), up 6.6%
Oh, one more sector was up, cumulative, year-to-date:
  • petroleum and petroleum products: up 46% 
It's a pretty sad report. And it hasn't changed much in the past year.

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