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Tuesday, May 01, 2012    

RTA: Tie purchases plummeted, production climbed in March

After exceeding seasonal norms in January and February because of unusually warm winter temperatures, crosstie purchases “eased off” in March, falling 23 percent from February’s level to 1.8 million units, according to the Railway Tie Association’s (RTA) monthly tie market report. But tie production continued to climb, rising 10 percent month over month to 2.17 million units.

Inventories increased 2 percent to 17 million units and the inventory-to-sales ratio climbed from 0.73 in February to 0.75 in March.

Following a “sleepy” fourth quarter, tie purchases rebounded in the first quarter, rising 26 percent — again, possible due to the warm weather — to 6.2 million units, RTA officials said in the report. First-quarter production increased 5 percent to 6 million units.

According to 12-month rolling data incorporating March, the trends for both purchases and production remained positive, RTA said. Purchases totaling 22.8 million units grew at an annual rate of 11 percent while production totaling 23.4 million units grew at an annual rate of 22 percent. Tie inventories climbed nearly 4 percent in the 12-month period.