U.S. Department of Agriculture
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s Dec. 4, 2025, Grain Transportation Report highlights mixed activity across export sales, rail, barge, ocean freight and fuel markets as the 2025/26 marketing year progresses. Highlights by sector include:
Export sales show slight overall growth
Unshipped balances for corn, soybeans and wheat totaled 39.99 mmt, up 2% from last week but 2% lower than a year ago.
- Corn net sales: 2 mmt, up 11% from the prior week.
- Soybean net sales: 1.06 mmt, down 27% week over week.
- Wheat net sales: 0.51 mmt, up 1% from last week.
Rail carloadings slip but remain above average
- U.S. Class I railroads originated 31,058 grain carloads for the week ending November 22 — 2% below the previous week but 8% higher than last year and 16% above the three-year average.
- Shuttle secondary railcar bids rose to $563 above tariff, up $138 from last week.
- Non-shuttle bids averaged $171 above tariff, a $4 increase from the prior week.
Barge movements decline sharply
- Weekly barged grain volumes fell to 604,900 tons, down 31% from last week and 24% below last year.
- 370 grain barges moved downriver — 233 fewer than the previous week.
- Unloads at New Orleans surged to 964 barges, a 46% increase from last week.
Gulf ocean vessel loadings lag from last year
- 26 oceangoing grain vessels were loaded in the Gulf for the week ending November 27 — 32% fewer than the same week a year ago.
- Over the next 10 days, 49 vessels were expected to load, 4% more than the comparable period last year.
Diesel fuel prices continue to ease
- The U.S. average diesel price dropped 7.3 cents to $3.758/gallon, remaining about 21.8 cents higher than this time last year.
