U.S. Class I railroads moved 27,730 grain carloads during the week ending September 19, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service. That’s a 1% dip from last week but matched last year’s numbers and ran 15% above the 3-year average.
The secondary railcar market cooled off a bit. October shuttle railcar bids averaged $700 above tariff for the week ending September 24, falling $188 from the week before but still $88 higher than this time last year. Non-shuttle bids came in at $40 above tariff, down $135 from the prior week.
Barge traffic told a different story. Grain movements on inland waterways reached 394,130 tons for the week ending September 26, climbing 5% from the previous week and 8% from last year. Some 240 barges headed downriver, just one fewer than the week before. The New Orleans region unloaded 951 grain barges, jumping 19% from the previous week.
Ocean shipping couldn’t match last year’s pace. Just 29 oceangoing grain vessels loaded in the Gulf for the week ending September 24, down 17% from the same period in 2025. The outlook for the next 10 days looked better, though, with 47 vessels expected to load starting September 25, that’s 2% more than last year.
Shipping rates to Japan stayed fairly stable. Moving a metric ton of grain from the U.S. Gulf to Japan cost $76.00, down 1% from the previous week. Pacific Northwest to Japan rates held at $37.00 per metric ton.
Diesel prices eased but remained well above last year. The U.S. average dropped 14.7 cents during the week ending September 28 to $6.382 per gallon, still a hefty 262.8 cents higher than the same week last year.
Export sales showed strong demand across the board. Unshipped balances of corn, soybeans, and wheat for marketing year 2026/27 stood at 35.71 million metric tons as of September 24, down 2% from the previous week but up 30% from last year. Soybean export sales jumped 77% from the prior week to 1.03 million metric tons, while corn sales rose 3% to 0.54 million metric tons and wheat edged up 8% to 0.29 million metric tons.
