Rail's third quarter 'solid' CHICAGO -- Third-quarter earnings for the four largest U.S. railroad companies are expected to get a boost from volume growth and solid pricing, according to this Dow Jones Newswires report.
Volumes have benefited from a growing economy and strong demand for some of the products the rails carry. Although third-quarter volumes may come in weaker than some on Wall Street anticipate, they remain strong enough -- particularly in coal, intermodal transport and grain -- to lead to considerable pricing increases.
Railroads typically enter their peak season toward the end of the third quarter, as products for the coming holiday season begin arriving at ports. Though the current peak season has gotten off to a slow start, the latest numbers from the Association of American Railroads show an increase in volumes in the past few weeks.
Intermodal volume rose 5.4 percent in September compared with the same period last year, while carload volume increased 0.3 percent during that same period, AAR said.
Intermodal is the movement of freight by two or more modes of transportation, such as ships and railroads or railroads and trucks. Carload describes a car that's loaded to its weight or space capacity.
Although volume growth for Union Pacific Corp., Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., CSX Corp., Norfolk Southern Corp., Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. was mixed for the quarter, in total it rose 3 percent from the year-earlier period, Merrill Lynch analyst Ken Hoexter estimated in a recent research note
