Canadian Rail Freight Data for July

On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) released its Monthly Railroad Carload Survey (MRCS) for July. Canadian railways transported 29.9 million tons of freight in July, up 1.6% year-over-year, marking the fourth consecutive annual increase.

Overall freight volume was just under the five-year average of 30.3 million tons for the month of July. Higher shipments of containers, potash, as well as some other commodities more than offset large declines in several commodities, in particular iron ore.

The increase in total freight carried in July was driven by higher volumes of intermodal traffic—mainly containers and, to a lesser extent, freight traffic from connections with American railways—offsetting a small decline in non-intermodal loadings, mainly commodities.

Freight traffic arriving from the United States also contributed to the overall growth in July, increasing 1.7% year-over-year to 3.8 million tons. This was the sixth consecutive annual increase.