North American weekly pulp and paper rail freight up 10.6%

By James McLaren, Senior Editor, PPI Pulp & Paper Week, RISI

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2011 (RISI) - Pulp and paper was one of just six of 20 commodity groups tracked to show an increase in weekly rail traffic for the week ending Apr. 23, according to the Assn of American Railroads.

AAR reported mixed results in weekly rail traffic on US railroads, with carloads down 2.1% and intermodal volume up 6.3% compared with the same week last year. Issues affecting the weekly figures include severe weather across a large portion of the Midwest and Southeastern US, as well as a non-holiday week in the 2010 comparison week.

North American pulp and paper rail freight for the week at 9,921 carloads was up 10.6% from a year earlier, and through 16 weeks of 2011 at 155,475 carloads was 8.7% higher than 2010.

Weekly pulp and paper freight was up 7.9% in the US, 15.5% higher in Canada, and 29.2% lower in Mexico, AAR showed.

North American lumber and wood products freight in the week at 5,318 carloads was down 7.7% and year-to-date at 82,182 carloads was 6.5% higher than last year.

Primary forest products were down 11.9% and 6.4% respectively.