Chemicals shipments on trains, called rail car loadings, are a measure of demand for products ranging from plastics to fertilizers.
For the week ended Oct. 2, chemical rail car loadings rose to 29.873 from 28,010 in the year-ago period, the AAR said.
The figures often provide an early glimpse of broader trends for the chemical industry as well as for manufacturing, according to analysts.
The weekly data indicated that year-to-date rail car chemical loadings have risen 10.2 percent compared with the same period in 2009.
Rail car loadings represent about 21 percent of chemical volumes by tonnage. Trucks, barges and pipelines carry the rest. (Reuters)
