Canadian railways total freight volume up 7.7% in January

 Traffic from domestic freight operations increased while traffic from the U.S. remained low

Statistics Canada reports that Canadian railways carried 32.6 million tonnes in January, up 7.7% from January 2020. This marked the third straight month of year-over-year growth. The overall tonnage was higher than normal for this time of year, well above the five-year average for the month of January and surpassing the prior record of 32.4 million tonnes set in January 2019.

The Federal Agency reports that the January growth reflected a higher volume of both domestic non-intermodal and intermodal loadings.

Domestic non-intermodal freight traffic grew 8.6% year over year to 26.2 million tonnes in January, mainly as a result of a sharp increase in loadings of two key inputs required for steelmaking – coal and iron ores. Together, these two commodities accounted for over two-thirds (67.2%) of the total increase in non-intermodal loadings.

Domestic intermodal loadings, mainly containers, remained well above the volume posted the same month a year earlier for the fifth consecutive month, rising 20.0% from January 2020 to 3.1 million tonnes-the highest monthly volume for a month of January on record.

Traffic received from the United States saw a year-over-year decline for the tenth straight month, dipping 7.3% to 3.3 million tonnes in January, after a 10.4% year-over-year decline the previous month.