A 15-day railway strike which made it difficult for exporters to ship their products to borders and ports helped slow Canadian exports in February.

February exports fell 2.1% from January’s record high, Statistics Canada said today.

Canadian companies shipped $39.6 billion worth of merchandise out of the country in February, an $800million drop from the previous month.

The only sector registering a gain for the month was energy — without it, exports plummeted 5.8%.

Exports of industrial goods posted the largest decline in February after nine straight monthly increases, while imports remained relatively stable, edging up 0.3% to $34.8 billion solely on the strength of gains in imports of industrial goods and automotive products.

As a result of the hit to exports and stable imports, Canada’s trade surplus with the world shrunk in February to $4.8 billion from a revised $5.8 billion in January.