So grain deliveries are up by 3,208 carloads compared to last year, Nonmetal Minerals up 2,457 and Petroleum is up 1,462, but it is Petroleum's fault for the delays?
So grain deliveries are up by 3,208 carloads compared to last year, Nonmetal Minerals up 2,457 and Petroleum is up 1,462, but it is Petroleum's fault for the delays?
Good chart. Thanks. What’s the source link?
The truth is I don’t know.
Having said that, It is my impression that the problem is with railroads that move both products over the same tracks across North Dakota to Minnesota and thence south along the Mississippi river.
We don’t for instance have the problem here in east Tennessee where we don’t have crude and grain traffic.
“but it is Petroleum’s fault for the delays?”
The delays are caused by an increase in business in ALL commodities at the same time. We have been having problems with lumber shipments since last year when our business picked up. The problem is there are not PEOPLE and locomotives to handle the increase in business for the railroads. We are specifically seeing this with the BNSF and CPRS currently. Both of these railroads are heavily involved in the transportation of oil out of the prairies.
Last winter because of the sub zero weather in the upper Midwest, railcars sat without moving, sometimes for as long as a month in the Chicago and Twin Cities area. Again, the BNSF and CPRS were the worst offenders. I had a car that sat in the Chicago suburbs for over one month. They claimed force majeur. The real problem was they did not have enough crews to physically go out and free up the switch tracks anymore. They had laid off people or did not hire as people retired during the recession.
Currently, we are dealing with a record grain harvest. There are just not enough trains and crews to move the grain that is sitting in the silos and elevators. Moving grain is similar logistically to forest products. What I mean it is like the milk run. They drop off/pick up 4 cars at one elevator, 10 at another and so forth. Then they have to group these all together to make a train load to go to Minneapolis or Winnipeg. With oil or coal the whole train starts at one place and goes to one place. It does not stop in between. It is a much more efficient use of the people and available equipment.
Meanwhile, GE and other companies are trying to make new locomotives. They can only make them so fast. Same thing goes with the three companies that make oil tanker cars. Of which Buffet owns one already.