Railway carloadings, February 2020

Released: 2020-04-29

Canadian railways transported 27.5 million tonnes of freight in February, an increase of 5.8% over February 2019.

In any given year, February generally has the lowest railway carloadings. In February 2019, carloadings fell strongly compared with the same period in 2017 and 2018, mainly due to oil production limits imposed in Alberta and a few major train derailments. As a result, the February 2020 increase brought the freight volume transported back to levels normally expected for the same period.

Chart 1 
Railway carloadings, total tonnage

Repercussions of the blockades on rail transport

The rail blockades erected in February 2020 in support of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation, which made headline news, were expected to lead to sharp decreases in the volume of freight transported. However, the blockades in Western Canada, where almost two-thirds of the total railway carloadings in Canada are usually shipped, were in place for about half the time as the blockades in Eastern Canada. Consequently, the tonnage transported in the East fell 6.9% to 9.3 million tonnes. This decrease was driven by loadings of iron ores and concentrates, which fell 2.8% (-106 900 tonnes) and of gaseous hydrocarbons, which were down 33.5% (-83 700 tonnes).

At the national level, fuel oil and crude petroleum loadings posted the largest gain, rising 128.3% to 2.2 million tonnes in February 2020. This increase follows a measure implemented in December 2019 by the Alberta Energy Regulator, giving producers a special allowance to increase their oil production, as long as the additional product was sent outside the province by new rail capacity.

Chart 2 
Railway carloadings in February, Eastern and Western divisions, February (2015 to 2020)

Chart 3 
Railway carloadings, by product, Eastern Canada, difference from February 2019 to February 2020

Repercussions of the rail blockades and COVID-19 on other markets

The month of February was marked by two events: the rail blockades in Canada and the global spread of COVID-19. Through its economic programs, Statistics Canada is closely tracking the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, including repercussions on rail transport of merchandise.

COVID-19 did not appear to have a major impact overall on Canada's international trade in February. However, a decrease in imports of computers and peripherals, cellphones, and clothing and accessories from China contributed to a continued downward trend in imports from China, which fell 6.8% in February after reaching their lowest level in three years in January. Exports to China (-6.4%) also fell for a second consecutive month (Canadian international merchandise trade, February 2020).

In the Canadian manufacturing sector, the rail blockades and COVID-19 resulted in an estimated decrease of $450 million in total sales in February. Almost 1 in 10 establishments in the sector reported being affected by one of the two events. Some of the effects cited by manufacturers include delays in receiving their raw materials and a slowdown in movement of products to market (Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, February 2020).

Although the exact repercussions of these events are difficult to measure, reduced trade with China and delays in transporting raw materials and moving finished products most likely affected rail transport of merchandise in Canada.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).