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| Chemical shipments drop |
| Chemical shipments on U.S. railroads fell 1.9 percent last week, the Association of American Railroads said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
The train shipments, called rail car loadings, are a measure of demand for products ranging from plastics to fertilizers. For the week that ended Oct. 24, chemical rail car loadings fell to 26,851 from 27,385 in the year-ago period, the AAR said. The figures often provide an early glimpse of broader trends for the chemical industry, as well as manufacturing, according to analysts. The weekly data indicated that year-to-date rail car chemical loadings have fallen 13.4 percent compared with the same period in 2008. Rail car loadings represent about 21 percent of chemical volumes by tonnage. Trucks, barges and pipelines carry the rest. (This item was distributed Oct. 30, 2009, by Reuters.) |
| October 30, 2009 |
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