Week of September 14, 2026

This Week in Brief

• AAR Week 36, ended September 12, 2026: U.S. carloads 223,560 (−3.3%), intermodal 271,305 (−4.1%), combined 494,865 (−3.7%). Year to date, 18,385,518 combined units, up 3.4%. North American combined traffic for the week was 679,581 (−3.6%), with year-to-date 25,216,803 (+3.0%). (AAR)
• The ten AAR commodity groups sum to 223,560, the published total carload figure. Grain led at 23,507 carloads (+17.3%); motor vehicles and parts fell hardest at −18.8%, and chemicals posted the largest absolute decline at 3,195 cars.
• The two western carriers beat the all-road figure. BNSF carloads were 82,037, up 0.10% year over year; Union Pacific carloads were 90,073, down 1.1%. Both are two to three points better than the −3.3% all-road number on the same holiday week. (BNSF; UP)
• Raw steel production rose in the same week. AISI put output for the week ending September 12 at 1,900,000 net tons at 82.3% capability utilization, up 5.1% week over week and 7.0% year over year. The Southern district produced 876,000 tons, 46% of national output. (AISI; SteelOrbis)
• Grain originations ran 24% above year-ago as three carriers raised tariffs into harvest. USDA reported 27,445 U.S. Class I grain carloads for the week ending September 5, up 24% year over year and 31% above the three-year average. BNSF added $200 per car on Pacific Northwest moves; Union Pacific raised corn tariffs $225 per car; CPKC raised $225 per car across origins. (USDA AMS)
• Grain fuel surcharges reached a record share of the freight bill: 48 cents per railcar mile, up 153% year over year, now 11% of total rail transportation cost for corn and soybeans against 5% a year earlier. Class I railroads collected $2.93 billion in fuel surcharges in Q2 2026, up 90% year over year. (BNN Bloomberg)
• Four Class I railroads and eleven short lines filed competing remedy demands in the UP–NS docket. BNSF declared “absolute opposition”; CN said it will not oppose if conditioned; CSX seeks joint ownership and dispatching control of UP’s Kansas City Line; CPKC proposes eight relief areas. UP CEO Jim Vena publicly rejected the requests. Condition filings are due November 18, 2026. (Railway Age)
• Greif will exit coated recycled board and close its Austell, Georgia mill, roughly 120,000 tons of annual capacity and about 90 employees, by the end of 2026. (PaperAge)

The Numbers

U.S. Headline

Commodity Groups, Ranked by Year-over-Year Change

By Railroad

Service Metrics

Commodity Watch

Grain and Agriculture

USDA reported 27,445 U.S. Class I grain carloads for the week ending September 5, up 4% week over week, 24% year over year and 31% above the three-year average, with year-to-date volume at 112% of prior year. Tariffs rose along with the volume. BNSF added $200 per car on Pacific Northwest moves with selective adjustments at Hereford, Texas; Union Pacific raised corn tariffs $225 per car; CPKC raised $225 per car across origins. In the secondary railcar market, September shuttle bids were $733 per car on BNSF and $450 on UP, and October bids were $1,150 and $550.

Barge took some of the volume, at higher rates. Total barged grain movements for the week ending September 12 were 435,800 tons, up 21% week over week and 73% year over year; Illinois River rates hit 861% of the 1976 tariff benchmark, up 5% on the week and 20% year over year. Export inspections for the week ending September 10 were 2.67 million metric tons, up 4% and 32% above the three-year average. (USDA AMS)

Corn was rated 57% good-to-excellent against 67% a year ago and was 86% dented, 42% mature and 8% harvested against a 6% five-year average; soybeans held at 58% good-to-excellent against 63% a year ago, 44% dropping leaves against a 37% average and 6% harvested against 3%. Winter wheat was only 8% planted against a 12% average. (USDA NASS, September 14) The September WASDE was released September 11, one day outside this issue’s news window.

Export sales for the week ending September 10 were corn 1,026,700 tonnes (Mexico 626,000; Japan 150,200), soybeans 1,702,000 tonnes (China 875,300; unknown destinations 218,900), wheat 325,900 tonnes (Philippines 189,600; Mexico 70,300) and sorghum 4,100 tonnes net. Corn and wheat ran above the pace needed to meet USDA projections even as overall grain and oilseed sales fell. (Brownfield, September 17) The published September rail fuel surcharge is $0.48 per railcar mile, unchanged from August and up $0.29 from September 2025.

Metals, Steel and Scrap

AISI raw steel production for the week ending September 12 was 1,900,000 net tons at 82.3% capability utilization, up 5.1% from 1,808,000 tons and 78.3% the prior week, and up 7.0% from 1,775,000 tons and 78.4% a year earlier. Year to date, 66,537,000 net tons at 79.1% utilization, up 5.5%. Regional output: North East 126,000; Great Lakes 538,000; Midwest 296,000; Southern 876,000; Western 64,000. (AISI)

Scheduled September–December mill outages reported in August total roughly 1.0–1.04 million short tons of hot-rolled coil, including U.S. Steel Gary in September at 361,498 tons and Big River Steel Works in October at 164,383. (Fastmarkets, August 21) No in-window mill outage, restart, capacity addition or Section 232 development was verified. No ferrous or nonferrous scrap price could be publicly sourced; those assessments are subscription series.

Chemicals and Liquid Bulk

BASF and UPC Technology signed a letter of intent covering BASF’s low product carbon footprint oxo alcohols across the plasticizer value chain; no capacities or tonnages were disclosed. (Hydrocarbon Processing, September 14) One day outside the window, the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period expired on the Olin–Huntsman merger of equals, satisfying a key closing condition; closing remains subject to further regulatory approvals with no date given. (Huntsman, September 11)

No force majeure declaration, plant closure, unplanned outage or turnaround was published in the window at any major U.S. producer, and no dated liquid bulk terminal or tank storage item surfaced. ICIS price assessments are subscription and no chemical price is quoted.

Fuels and Fuel Additives

For the week ending September 11, commercial crude inventories excluding the SPR fell 0.6 million barrels to 423.4 million, 1% above the five-year average. Motor gasoline stocks rose to 207.7 million, 5% below the five-year average. Distillate stocks rose 1.6 million to 107.9 million but remain 13% below the five-year average, the lowest of the major products relative to normal. Refinery capacity utilization was 96.8%. (EIA) Domestic crude production for the week could not be retrieved and is not estimated.

Fuel ethanol production was 1,099 thousand b/d, unchanged week over week and up 44 thousand year over year; stocks rose to 25.220 million barrels, the highest since May. EPA granted 29 small refinery exemptions against 2025 RFS obligations, exempting 1.76 billion RINs, and says it will propose reallocating 100% of the exempted volume into 2026–2027 obligations by the end of October. That is a proposal, not a rule. (AgriNews, September 12) The Senate Agriculture Committee passed the Agricultural Act of 2026 with a year-round E15 provision. (RFA, September 16)

Lumber, Forest and Paper

August housing starts fell 2.6% to 1,275,000 SAAR, with both the monthly and annual changes carrying confidence intervals containing zero. The split matters more than the total. Single-family starts rose 7.6% to 918,000 and are up 5.2% year over year, while multifamily starts fell 22.5% to 344,000, down 15.5%. Completions fell to 1,128,000, down 27.1% year over year. (U.S. Census / HUD, September 17)

Western Spruce-Pine-Fir 2x4 for the week ending September 4 was US$470/mfbm, down 1% on the week but up $50 against September 2025, with Madison’s citing severely depleted inventories. This is Madison’s own series, not the Random Lengths framing composite, which is subscription and is not quoted. (Madison’s, September 16) No sawmill opening, closure or curtailment was published in the window, and no softwood lumber duty development occurred.

Greif will close its Sweetwater paperboard mill in Austell, Georgia by the end of 2026, exiting coated recycled board, roughly 120,000 tons of annual capacity and about 90 employees. CEO Ole Rosgaard called it “a difficult decision because of the impact on our colleagues, their families, and the surrounding community.” (PaperAge, September 16)

Smurfit Westrock and Pratt Industries filed AD/CVD petitions on pizza boxes from China, Malaysia and Turkey, alleging dumping margins of 96.62–568.50% for China, 110.73% for Malaysia and 120.65–210.37% for Turkey, with subject imports up 130% between 2023 and 2025. Commerce must decide on initiation within 20 days and the USITC preliminary injury determination is due within 45. (PaperAge, September 16) The first major equipment for Irving Pulp & Paper’s C$1.5 billion Project NextGen arrived by barge at Saint John on September 13; the project will raise output more than 70%. (PaperAge, September 17)

Cement, Aggregates and Industrial Minerals

Washington rescinded tariffs on Canadian cement effective September 15, 2026. Proclamations released September 8 reversed a 50% tariff imposed in July and enacted from mid-August; the National Precast Concrete Association and Senator Susan Collins had both written to the administration citing supply disruption and the fact that domestic production does not cover domestic demand. No import tonnages were disclosed, and no source named a railroad, terminal or route. (Global Cement, September 16)

USGS put Q2 2026 U.S. aggregate production at 674 million metric tons, up 5.7% year over year: crushed stone 413 Mt (+6.8%) and sand and gravel 261 Mt (+4%). The top five sand and gravel states produced 94.8 Mt, up 16.1%. Through six months, output is up 5.9%. (Pit & Quarry, September 16) Carmeuse acquired an 80% stake in Argentine lime producer Caleras San Juan, adding more than 0.75 Mt/yr across four kilns. (Global Cement, September 14) Martin Marietta’s acquisition of Lhoist North America closed in late August, placing a major aggregates producer into industrial lime.

There was no fly ash or supplementary cementitious materials news in the window. Nothing was published for Charah Solutions, Eco Material Technologies or Boral.

Frac Sand, Coal and Fertilizer

Frac sand and proppant. No confirmed news in the window. The newsrooms at Atlas Energy Solutions, Covia, U.S. Silica, Smart Sand and ProPetro were checked and had nothing new. The Baker Hughes rig count for the week ended September 11, one day before the window, was 591 U.S. rigs, up 3 week over week and 52 year over year, breaking a three-week slide; the split was 581 land, 8 offshore and 2 inland water, with the year-over-year gain breaking out to +34 oil and +14 gas. Canada stood at 207 (+3 and +21) and North America at 798 (+6 and +73). (Baker Hughes) The September 18 count had not posted at compilation and is not estimated. In-basin and Northern White sand assessments are subscription and no price is quoted. Nonmetallic minerals, the AAR group that carries frac sand, fell 6.0% to 30,800 carloads on the holiday week against +2.3% year to date.

Coal, petcoke and coke. No confirmed news in the window. EIA weekly coal production could not be retrieved. Coal remains the only AAR commodity group negative year to date, at −1.8%; BNSF coal fell 8.9% to 21,783 on the week while UP coal fell 2% to 13,910, with UP’s year-to-date coal up 2%.

Fertilizer. DTN’s retail average fell for a third straight week: anhydrous $938/ton, urea $658, potash $494, DAP $923, with seven of eight nutrients higher year over year and anhydrous up 22%. (DTN, September 16) No plant outage, import, tariff, terminal or corporate development was published. Wholesale and NOLA barge benchmarks are subscription series; the DTN figures are a retail survey, not a wholesale benchmark.

Plastics and resins. No polyethylene, polypropylene, PVC or PET price could be verified for this window. Of the three sources checked, one was dated 2025, one returned an HTTP 403 and one was dated August 31, outside the window.

Market Moves

Terminals and Facilities

Spearpoint Logistics will provide warehousing, distribution, heavyweight cross-docking and brokerage at BNSF’s Barstow International Gateway, handling freight arriving from Asia and Mexico through Southern California ports. BNSF Group VP Jon Gabriel said the facility creates “new opportunities for customers to improve efficiency, reduce complexity and strengthen their supply chains.” The Barstow city council approved the project in June 2026; no square footage or financial terms were disclosed. (Progressive Railroading, September 16)

Enstructure and the Diamond State Port Corporation broke ground on the $669 million Edgemoor container terminal at the Port of Wilmington, targeting a 2029 opening: $225m from Enstructure, $325m from Delaware and $119m in federal grants. A 2,700-foot quay at 45 feet of depth, vessels to 16,000 TEU, 1.2 million TEU designed annual capacity, seven electric ship-to-shore cranes and 24 electric RTGs. Rail service by Norfolk Southern and CSX. (Progressive Railroading, September 15)

Bowie County, Texas received an “AA” BDO Zone rating on 800,000 bone dry tons per year of woody biomass, anchored by the Boone-Copeland Industrial Park at Hooks. TexAmericas Center operates a 350-car rail yard and more than 30 miles of rail across roughly 12,000 acres with 3.5 million sq ft of industrial space, offering transloading, railcar storage and spotting. Seven rail lines converge at Texarkana and the site was recently added to Union Pacific’s Focus Sites Program. (Railway Age, September 16)

The North Carolina Railroad awarded up to $250,000 toward a rail spur serving an Atlantic Packaging warehouse expansion at Tabor City, North Carolina, backed by more than $5 million of company investment and expected to generate at least 480 carloads annually. (Railway Age, September 15)

South Carolina Ports and Norfolk Southern launched a daily Charleston–Huntsville intermodal service on September 11, serving north Alabama and Middle Tennessee. About 25% of SC Ports’ container volume already moves by rail. (FreightWaves, September 14)

No transload or terminal closure or embargo was reported in the window.

Railroads and Short Lines

TNW Corp. began operating the 66-mile NETX Railway between Greenville and Winfield, Texas under a long-term agreement with the Northeast Texas Rural Rail Transportation District, its fourth railroad. The line serves five counties, targets agriculture, building materials, chemicals, pipe and recycling traffic, and interchanges with Union Pacific and CPKC. (Progressive Railroading, September 16)

Pacific West, LLC acquired Coleman Industrial Construction of Kansas City, which builds and maintains rail and industrial facilities for Class I railroads; terms were not disclosed. Coleman is a contractor, not a terminal owner. (Railway Age, September 14)

No BNSF, CSX, NS, CN or CPKC site certification or industrial development release was issued in the window, and nothing was published involving Watco, OmniTRAX, Genesee & Wyoming, Patriot Rail, R.J. Corman, Savage, Pinsly or Anacostia.

Equipment, Labor and Rates

Rail container dwell at Los Angeles–Long Beach rose to 6.75 days in August from 6.34 in July, while truck dwell eased to 2.95 days from 3.03, on Pacific Merchant Shipping Association data; the complex handled 1,875,899 TEU. (FreightWaves, September 16)

No rail labor agreements, disputes, crew-staffing actions or union filings were published in the window. No railcar order, delivery, backlog or leasing news came from GATX, Trinity, Greenbrier or the former Wells Fargo Rail portfolio, and no public lease rate or fleet utilization figure was available for the week.

One day outside the window, the STB set the 2025 railroad cost of capital at 9.79%, down from 10.68% for 2024. (Railway Age, September 11)

Policy and Funding

UP–NS merger, STB Finance Docket No. FD 36873. Four Class I railroads described the responsive applications they intend to file. BNSF declared “absolute opposition,” seeking roughly 824 route-miles of Chicago–Bethlehem, Pennsylvania trackage rights, a neutral Gulf Coast switching railroad and an open-access framework for facilities served only by the merged carrier; BNSF EVP Tom G. Williams said the merged system would approach “roughly half of all U.S. rail volume.” CN said it will not oppose if conditioned, seeking trackage rights to St. Louis and Kansas City, a lease of UP’s Neff Yard and preserved access at Des Moines and nine Illinois points. CSX seeks 50% ownership and dispatching control of UP’s Kansas City Line; CPKC proposes eight relief areas with “springing” dispatching transfers triggered by service failures. Eleven short lines joined in seeking access relief; the individual short lines were not named in available reporting. (Railway Age, September 12; FreightWaves, September 14)

UP CEO Jim Vena rejected the access requests, saying “the idea to give up tracks of your railroad for no reason at all just goes against the fundamental principle of how business should work,” while remaining open to mutually beneficial deals. (FreightWaves, September 18)

The Rail Passengers Association filed comments opposing the merger and joined a shipper motion for summary denial, stating that 43 of 69 FRA Corridor Identification projects potentially use UP or NS infrastructure and that 42 Amtrak route segments could receive an additional two to ten freight trains per day. (Progressive Railroading, September 17) South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster filed a letter supporting the merger, joining roughly 40 state and local officials. (Progressive Railroading, September 16)

Terminal-railroad neutrality was raised as a merger-specific question at four gateways. Railway Age commentary argues a merged UP–NS would hold controlling or near-controlling stakes simultaneously at the Belt Railway of Chicago, the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, Kansas City Terminal and Peoria & Pekin Union, invoking the 1998 Houston service crisis and canvassing three possible remedies: moving NS shares to CN, a jointly hired neutral dispatching model, or terminal companies owned by non-Class I parties. This is commentary, not a filing, and the ownership percentages are the authors’ own. (Railway Age, September 16)

NS framed the next intermodal era around removing friction. Shawn Tureman, NS VP of Automotive and Intermodal Marketing, said “cost alone does not shift a supply chain — customers need confidence,” and called the terminal “our storefront,” pointing to gate efficiency and container availability as the adoption drivers. He said a combined UP–NS would convert roughly 10,000 interline lanes to single-line service, eliminating about 2,400 railcar and container handlings and 60,000 car-miles per day. Those are the applicants’ own figures. NS reported 13.7% year-over-year intermodal volume growth in the cited week. (FreightWaves, September 17)

The STB dismissed a thirteen-year-old Amtrak complaint against CN over compensation for Amtrak’s use of CN facilities, granting a joint motion; terms were not disclosed. (STB Release 26-22, September 16)

New Jersey Rail Freight Assistance Program, FY27: $25 million, applications due October 9, 2026. Open to owners and operators of New Jersey short lines, funding up to 90% of project cost, with priority for port connectivity, freight-rail gap closure and 286,000-lb track upgrades. An Eligibility Assessment Form must clear the SAGE system first. (NJDOT)

No federal grant window is open and no new notice of funding opportunity was published this week. FY25–26 CRISI closed June 25, 2026; Railroad Crossing Elimination closed June 6; Port Infrastructure Development closed February 28.

Dates to Watch

Date	Event	Why it matters
Sept 21–25, 2026	CARB hearing and vote on California E15 (date unconfirmed)	West Coast terminal and rack infrastructure
Sept 23, 2026	AAR Week 37 release, the first clean year-over-year comparison since Week 34	Tests this week’s calendar read
Sept 23, 2026	EIA discontinues the Weekly Petroleum Status Report highlights PDF	Long-standing weekly data path changes format
Oct 6, 2026	Commerce initiation decision on pizza box AD/CVD (20 days from Sept 16)	Containerboard import flows and box demand
Oct 9, 2026	NJDOT Rail Freight Assistance Program FY27 applications due: $25m, 90% cost share	286,000-lb upgrade priority is transload-relevant
Oct 9, 2026	USDA updates the corn-for-ethanol marketing year figure	Ethanol and corn movement demand signal
Oct 31, 2026	EPA proposal on reallocating 1.76bn exempted RINs into 2026–27	Ethanol and biodiesel blending demand
Nov 18, 2026	STB FD 36873: comments and responsive applications due	Gateway neutrality and terminal access conditions
Dec 31, 2026	Greif Sweetwater mill, Austell, GA closes	120,000 tons of CRB capacity leaves the Southeast
Feb 16, 2027	STB FD 36873: responses due	Second round of the same proceeding
May 28, 2027	STB FD 36873: final briefs due	Closes the evidentiary record

Sources

1. “U.S. Rail Traffic, Week 36, 2026, Ended September 12, 2026,” Association of American Railroads, September 16, 2026 — aar.org
2. “U.S. Rail Traffic, Week 35, 2026, Ended September 5, 2026,” Association of American Railroads, September 9, 2026 — aar.org
3. “U.S. Rail Traffic, Week 37, 2025, Ended September 13, 2025,” Association of American Railroads, September 17, 2025. Establishes the prior-year comparison base — aar.org
4. “U.S. Rail Traffic, Week 36, 2025, Ended September 6, 2025,” Association of American Railroads, September 10, 2025. Used for the holiday-neutral calculation — aar.org
5. BNSF Railway weekly carload report, week ending September 12, 2026 — bnsf.com
6. Union Pacific weekly carloadings 2026, Week 36 — investor.unionpacific.com
7. Union Pacific key performance metrics — investor.unionpacific.com
8. Norfolk Southern weekly performance reports, week ending September 11, 2026 — norfolksouthern.investorroom.com
9. CSX weekly key metrics, CSX Week 37, ended September 11, 2026 — investors.csx.com
10. CN key weekly metrics, Week 36, September 5–11, 2026 — cn.ca
11. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Grain Transportation Report, September 17, 2026 — ams.usda.gov
12. USDA NASS Crop Progress, week ending September 13, 2026, September 14, 2026 — nal.usda.gov
13. EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report highlights, September 16, 2026 — eia.gov
14. American Iron and Steel Institute, weekly raw steel production — steel.org; “US raw steel production increases by 5.1 percent,” SteelOrbis, September 15, 2026 — steelorbis.com
15. Baker Hughes North America rig count, week ended September 11, 2026 — rigcount.bakerhughes.com
16. U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, New Residential Construction, August 2026, September 17, 2026 — census.gov
17. “CN, BNSF filings ID conditions for preserving rail competition,” Railway Age, September 12, 2026 — railwayage.com
18. “Union Pacific blasts rival railroads’ trackage rights requests,” FreightWaves, September 18, 2026 — freightwaves.com
19. “BNSF, CPKC and CSX to request broad access to a combined UP-NS network,” FreightWaves, September 14, 2026 — freightwaves.com
20. “Container delays by rail increase at busiest U.S. ports,” FreightWaves, September 16, 2026 — freightwaves.com
21. “SC Ports, Norfolk Southern expand intermodal access to Huntsville,” FreightWaves, September 14, 2026 — freightwaves.com
22. “Spearpoint Logistics to serve BNSF’s Barstow International Gateway,” Progressive Railroading, September 16, 2026 — progressiverailroading.com
23. “Terminal partners break ground at Port of Wilmington,” Progressive Railroading, September 15, 2026 — progressiverailroading.com
24. “TNW Corp.’s NETX Railway begins operations,” Progressive Railroading, September 16, 2026 — progressiverailroading.com
25. “Rail Passengers Association asks STB to deny UP-NS merger application,” Progressive Railroading, September 17, 2026 — progressiverailroading.com
26. “South Carolina Gov. McMaster voices support for UP-NS merger,” Progressive Railroading, September 16, 2026 — progressiverailroading.com
27. “Bowie County receives ‘AA’ BDO Zone rating for woody biomass,” Railway Age, September 16, 2026 — railwayage.com
28. “NCRR invests $250,000 in Atlantic Packaging rail spur in Tabor City,” Railway Age, September 15, 2026 — railwayage.com
29. “Pacific West acquires Coleman Industrial Construction,” Railway Age, September 14, 2026 — railwayage.com
30. “Railroad cost of capital set at 9.79% for 2025,” Railway Age, September 11, 2026. Outside the news window — railwayage.com
31. “Neutral by whose hire?” Railway Age, September 16, 2026 — railwayage.com
32. “Norfolk Southern: new intermodal era about removing rail friction,” FreightWaves, September 17, 2026 — freightwaves.com
33. Surface Transportation Board, Release No. 26-22, September 16, 2026 — stb.gov
34. NJDOT Local Aid Hub, Rail Freight Assistance Program FY27, deadline October 9, 2026 — njdotlocalhub.nj.gov
35. “US rail fuel surcharges on grain hit record highs,” BNN Bloomberg, September 14, 2026 — bnnbloomberg.ca
36. “Fertilizer prices continue lower,” DTN/Progressive Farmer, September 16, 2026. Retail survey series — dtnpf.com
37. “EPA grants small refinery exemptions,” AgriNews, September 12, 2026 — agrinews-pubs.com
38. “RFA thanks Senate Ag Committee for advancing year-round E15,” Renewable Fuels Association, September 16, 2026 — ethanolrfa.org
39. “Beef, pork export sales rise while corn, soybeans fall,” Brownfield Ag News, September 17, 2026 — brownfieldagnews.com
40. “US removes tariffs upon cement imported from Canada,” Global Cement, September 16, 2026 — globalcement.com
41. “Carmeuse acquires stake in Argentinian lime producer Caleras San Juan,” Global Cement, September 14, 2026 — globalcement.com; “Update on lime, September 2026,” Global Cement, September 16, 2026 — globalcement.com
42. “USGS aggregate production climbs in second quarter,” Pit & Quarry, September 16, 2026 — pitandquarry.com
43. “BASF and UPC deepen strategic partnership to advance low-PCF solutions across the plasticizer value chain,” Hydrocarbon Processing, September 14, 2026 — hydrocarbonprocessing.com
44. “Olin and Huntsman announce expiration of Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period,” Huntsman Corporation, September 11, 2026. Outside the news window — huntsman.com
45. “Fall/winter outages to take out 1 mln tons of HRC in US market,” Fastmarkets, August 21, 2026. Free insight article; outside the news window — fastmarkets.com
46. “Turning point for lumber sales at Labour Day 2026,” Madison’s Lumber Reporter, September 16, 2026. Madison’s proprietary series, not Random Lengths — madisonsreport.com
47. “Greif to exit CRB business, close Sweetwater paperboard mill in Georgia,” PaperAge, September 16, 2026 — paperage.com
48. “US pizza box producers file petitions for relief from unfairly traded imports from China, Malaysia and Turkey,” PaperAge, September 16, 2026 — paperage.com
49. “First components for Irving Pulp and Paper’s NextGen project arrive by barge,” PaperAge, September 17, 2026 — paperage.com

Not retrievable this week. CPKC’s key metrics page shows its numbers only in JavaScript charts, so no CPKC volume or service figure appears in this issue. CSX publishes weekly volumes only as downloadable spreadsheets; only its service metrics were retrievable. Norfolk Southern’s public weekly page does not separate carloads from combined traffic. EIA’s full Weekly Petroleum Status Report tables returned HTTP 403, so domestic crude production for the week is absent, and EIA’s weekly coal production data returned HTTP 404. The Baker Hughes rig count for September 18 had not posted when this issue was compiled; the September 11 figure is used and labeled as such. The Federal Register could not be systematically swept for this window, so FRA, PHMSA and STB notices may be missing.

Paywalled series deliberately not estimated. No figure is quoted from PanXchange (frac sand and proppant), Green Markets or Argus (fertilizer indices and NOLA barge), Argus or S&P Global (steam coal and petcoke), Fastmarkets/AMM or Kallanish (ferrous scrap and steel), ICIS (chemicals and resins), Random Lengths (framing lumber composite), or Fastmarkets RISI (containerboard and corrugated). Where a free series exists it is labeled. DTN’s fertilizer figures are a retail survey, not a wholesale benchmark, and Madison’s lumber figures are Madison’s own series, not the Random Lengths composite.

The Interchange Weekly · Issue 03 · Week of September 14, 2026 · Published by Rail-Industrial Partners