Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics - 2nd Quarter 2017 - 5

Key Corridor Growth

WC-EC
9.2%

EC-WC
9.2%

SW-MW
10.6%

MW-SW
7.4%

NE-MW
6.3%

Key corridor directional contribution to overall intermodal growth.
yy Finally, the Midwest-Norwest corridor saw the only mayy Shipments in the intra-Southeast corridor increased 3.6%
jor corridor decline of Q2, recording a slip in shipments
year-over-year in Q2 after posting negative growth in Q1.
by 0.6%. The only decrease came from containers in the
Notably, domestic containers shrank by 0.7%. Trailers again
Northwest-Midwest direction, but it was enough to pull
saw a healthy gain of 6.2% which was enough to pull dogrowth in the entire lane lower. Overall, containers shrank
mestic intermodal up into positive territory at 1.6%. Internaby 1.3% year-over-year. Of that, international loads fell by
tional volumes posted a solid gain of 4.7%.
3.6% while domestic volumes increased 3.0%. Within the
yy The Southeast-Southwest corridor posted a gain of 3.4%
domestic market, containers grew by 2.0%, and trailers, at
during Q2, slightly below the improvement shown in Q1.
8.6% improvement, driving domestic growth higher.
International shipments pulled total gains up with 4.8%
year-over-year advancement. Meanwhile, domestic contain- Intermodal Outlook
ers only gained 2.3% since last year. Trailers jumped nearly
Intermodal seems to have stabilized after last summer's
20%. While only a small fraction of the intermodal market,
the improvement in trailers was great enough to push total poor performance. Although, weak comparisons played a big
role in Q2's growth rate, taken with Q1's modest 2.0% gain,
domestic gains to 2.8% since last year.
the underlying story seems to be one of slow growth. In total,
yy International containers took off in the Northeast-Midwest
intermodal volumes gained 3.3% over the first half of 2017.
corridor, gaining 5.8% since last year. That segment pulled
The international segment led overall intermodal growth
total lane growth up to 3.2%. Domestic containers advanced by 1.4%, but trailers slipped by 2.2% year-over-year. through the first half of 2017, rising 4.3%. But while
international loads have done well, container imports have
Based on declines in trailers, domestic intermodal only
done much better. Full Q2 container import numbers are not
grew 0.8% year-over-year.
yet available, but in the first quarter, container imports at
yy The South Central-Southwest lane saw a slight gain of
the major U.S. and Canadian ports jumped 6.4%, while total
1.3% in Q2. International fell 1.3%. Domestic volumes imNorth American international volumes gained just 2.9%. The
proved by 6.2% year-over-year. Trailers gained 9.7%, bringdata that is available for Q2 2017 suggests that there was a
ing total domestic advancement to 6.5% for the corridor.
similar gap in the second quarter. Container import growth is
Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics Report | Second Quarter 2017 | © IANA 2017

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