Growth in international containers accounted for the bulk of North America's increase in intermodal volume for the second quarter (Q2) of 2006.

According to Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics, the Intermodal Association of North America's (IANA) quarterly publication, international container volume for Q2 2006 surpassed 2005's peak season volumes (during Q4 2005) by about 130,000 containers.

Q4 is traditionally the strongest for international volume, the publication said.

International containers accounted for more than 90 per cent of Q2's intermodal volume growth, IANA said in a statement. Growth was attributed to the "continued strength in container imports from Asia, particularly at Pacific southwest ports".

IANA's vice president of member services & business development, Tom Malloy, said Pacific southwest ports, the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in southern California, handled "the lion's share" of import volumes from Asia.

He said Q2 of 2006 was the first time, since the IANA started reporting loadings in 1996, that the prior year's quarterly and monthly peak volumes were exceeded in the first half of the following year.

For Q2 2006, trailer volume handled hiked 1.9 per cent to 610,237, domestic container volume jumped 3.3 per cent to 814,659 and ISO containers increased 9.4 per cent to 2,158,404 compared to Q2 2005. Intermodal loads for Q2 2006 totalled 3,583,300, a 5.9 per cent increase from the previous year's Q2.

The Q2 2006 intermodal volume tops Q4 2005's peak of 3.56 million. On a monthly basis, the June volume of 1.24 million loads topped 2004's October peak of 1.23 million, the statement said.

Data for Intermodal Market Trend & Statistics are as reported by six class 1 railroads in North America, four in the US and two in Canada.