By Rip Watson, Senior Reporter This story appears in the Feb. 17 print edition of Transport Topics.
Intermodal freight capped its second consecutive record year with a 7% increase in shipments that were again led by domestic container moves, the Intermodal Association of North America announced.
The organization’s quarterly market trends and statistics report said total truck-rail freight rose to 3.99 million shipments, including 8% domestic freight growth and a 5.9% rise in international shipments.
For the year, intermodal shipments totaled 15.5 million, or 4.6% above the 2012 total that was the previous record.
IANA’s report includes U.S. and Canadian railroads. The U.S.-based freight railroads had a record year in 2013 as well, totaling 12.8 million loads as measured by the Association of American Railroads.
The report also showed long-term trends such as the steady gains in domestic container and international loads, using the year 2000 as a benchmark.
From that year through 2013, domestic container shipments were almost 2.5 times greater than in 2000, while international containers increased by 1.5 times through the same period.
Last year, domestic shipments accounted for 49.7% of all intermodal freight, leading IANA to state that “domestic may well surpass international intermodal for the first time in 2014.”
As recently as 2006, nearly three in five intermodal shipments were international freight.
“With intermodal sprinting across the finish line in 2013, the outlook for 2014 has brightened,” the report said. “A strong finish in international could well describe a nascent recovery in import growth as consumer spending improves.”
On the domestic side, the report concluded that “the many factors boosting domestic container loadings are likely to extend into 2014. It is possible growth rates could slow a bit” as some of the new markets opened up in recent years begin to mature.
“Domestic containers continued to gain share from trucking,” the report said, “strengthened by the railroads’ and container fleet owners’ ongoing investment.”
But intermodal still represents a relatively small portion of highway loads moved more than 550 miles.
Data from FTR Associates, which were included in IANA’s report, showed 20.5 million loads moving more than 550 miles in the fourth quarter compared with the 3.99 million intermodal loads. Those numbers indicate a 16.3% market share for intermodal.
During the same 2012 quarter, intermodal’s market share was 16%.
The 2014 trucking outlook contained in IANA’s report says fleets’ performance will be influenced by the extent of economic growth and the long-term impact of regulatory changes that affect capacity.
“The moment of truth in the [trucking] data will be the month of March, when macroeconomic and freight indicators typically go into their spring surges.”
December was the strongest month of the quarter in percentage growth, with a 9.4% increase, after growth rates around 6% in October and November.
However, total volume was strongest in October at 1.43 million shipments. That month had the highest total in 10 of the past 14 years.
