The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported volumes for April.

Carload traffic in April totaled 944,339 carloads, down 16.1% or 180,598 from April 2015. U.S. railroads also originated 1,028,460 containers and trailers in April 2016, down 7.5% or 83,729 units from the same month last year. For April 2016, combined U.S. carload and intermodal originations were 1,972,829, down 11.8% or 264,327 carloads and intermodal units from April 2015.

In April 2016, five of the 20 carload commodity categories tracked by the AAR each month saw carload gains compared with April 2015. These included: miscellaneous carloads (up 25% or 4,743 carloads), coke (up 16.1%or 2.354 carloads) and chemicals (up 1.5% or 1,909 carloads).

Commodities that saw declines in April 2016 from April 2015 included coal (down 39.7% or 160,624 carloads), petroleum and petroleum products (down 25.1% or 15,122 carloads) and grain mill products (down 7.1% or 2,760 carloads). Excluding coal, carloads were down 2.8% or 19,974 carloads from April 2015.

Total U.S. carload traffic for the first 17 weeks of 2016 was 4,087,620 carloads, down 14.3% or 83,729 carloads, while intermodal containers and trailers were 4,368,132 units, down 0.8% or 33,771 containers and trailers when compared to the same period in 2015. For the first four months of 2016, total rail traffic volume in the U.S. was 8,455,752 carloads and intermodal units, down 7.8% or 715,985 carloads and intermodal units from the same point last year.

“Rail coal traffic continues to suffer due to low natural gas prices and high coal stockpiles at power plants.  Coal accounted for just 26% of non-intermodal rail traffic for U.S. railroads in April 2016, down from 36% in April 2015 and 45% as recently as late 2011,” said John T. Gray, AAR senior vice president of Policy and Economics. “We expect non-coal carloads to strengthen when the economy gets stronger, and we think intermodal weakness in April is probably at least partly a function of high business inventories that need to be drawn down before new orders, and thus new shipments, are made.”