2011 Record-Setting Year for Intermodal Container Volume

February 7, 2012

Intermodal container volume set a new record in 2011 with 12.4 million moves, beating former record-year 2007 by a noteworthy 3.7 percent, according to IANA's Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics report. The North American intermodal industry showed its resilience during Q4 2011, delivering solid overall volume increases of 4.1 percent for the quarter and 4.9 percent for the year. It was intermodal's second-consecutive year and eighth-consecutive quarter of year-over-year volume gains.

Fourth Quarter 2011 Intermodal Volume Comparisons

Equipment Type	2010	2011	Change
Trailers	446,019	432,623	-3.0%
Domestic Containers	1,166,456	1,307,165	+12.1%
All Domestic Equipment	1,612,475	1,739,788	+7.9%
ISO Containers	1,847,025	1,860,393	+0.7%
Total	3,459,500	3,600,181	+4.1%

Overall 2011 Intermodal Volume Comparisons

Equipment Type	2010	2011	Change
Trailers	1,664,787	1,693,782	+1.7%
Domestic Containers	4,495,364	4,926,185	+9.6%
All Domestic Equipment	6,160,151	6,619,967	+7.5%
ISO Containers	7,250,387	7,451,558	+2.8%
Total	13,410,538	14,071,525	+4.9%

Record Q4 container volume was largely due to continued strength in domestic container loadings, which skyrocketed more than 12 percent during the quarter and totaled 4.93 million for the year. This was a 9.6-percent increase over 2010's total. Gains in domestic containers were solid in all IANA regions during the quarter. Big box domestic loadings of 48-foot and 53-foot domestic containers also posted their highest-recorded numbers in Q4 and the year, accounting for 39.8 percent of all container volume during 2011.

Source: Intermodal Association of North America