U.S. Rail shipments drop

Traffic World publishes an article tomorrow detailing the big drop in rail shipments.

Bulk commodity and equipment cargoes carried in large-capacity railcars fell 8.4 percent from a year earlier for major U.S. carriers in the week that ended Nov. 8, said the Association of American Railroads.

That is only one week, but it follows a 5.4 percent year-on-year drop the week before and 4.7 percent before that. The carload decline has only escalated since the September financial crisis began rippling through the overall economy.

Bulk cargoes almost always move by rail. That has been the traditional rail cargo.

Railroads also carry trucks, or containers. That is called intermodal. This too has slipped.

A similar trend is at work on the intermodal side, where rail lines handle the long haul for highway trailers or containers that trucks carry from rail terminal to final destination.

The AAR said those U.S. rail lines saw intermodal loadings shrink 6.3 percent in the latest week, 4.9 percent as of Nov. 1 and 4.1 percent for the week ended Oct. 25.

There is no mention if truck traffic dipped during the same period. With the price of gas going down, it's possible some of this business switched back to over the road.

EU considering more rule changes for liner shipping

Traffic World reports EU's Competition Directorate (referred to as DG Comp), has given ocean carriers notice they are considering changing the rules, some more:


"A new DG Comp proposal threatens to limit liner carriers' ability to share vessel capacity through alliances, slot exchanges and vessel-sharing agreements.

The draft proposal for consortia regulation came just as the liner industry is adjusting to the Oct. 18 end of a 150-year-old system of rate-setting conferences in European trade lanes.

Carriers were shocked by the proposal's assumption that there is no competition among carriers that are members of alliances or vessel-sharing agreements, and that these kinds of consortia would be considered as single entities when measuring an agreement's market share."

If this goes through, look for more mergers in the international shipping industry.