Railcars should continue to exceed early projections for profits in 2010
May 6, 2010
Norfolk Southern Beats on Revenues | finance.yahoo.com
All major US railroads reported outstanding gains in profits during the first quarter, although one was more dependent on increases in revenue per carload than the others. All reported operation ratios near 75%, well under the ratios posted last year but comparable to their performance in the fourth quarter. With coal traffic back to the “new normal” in the second quarter, the railroads should continue to outpace the earlier forecasts of both revenues and profits.
Trinity stumbles in new railcar market
April 30, 2010
Trinity Industries, Inc. Reports First Quarter Results | finance.yahoo.com
Following the merger of Thrall Car and Trinity Industries in 2001, the market share of the combined companies plunged from 65% to 25% during the last recession. Trinity made great progress in recovering their lost share in the years before the Great Recession, rising to well over 40% in 2009. This year, however, they appear to have lost it all, with just 20% of deliveries and 23% of all new orders during the first quarter.
GATX marine unit may be profitable this year
April 27, 2010
Cargo shipments on Great Lakes quadruple in March | www.fox21online.com
In recent years, 25% of GATX revenue came from bulk shipments on the Great Lakes moving in their American Steamship Company carriers. In 2009, those revenues fell to just 14% of total income. The 400% gain in bulk shipping during March, the start of the Great Lakes cargo season, suggests that revenues may rebound strongly in 2010 and that this division may return to profitability.
EPA and popular opinion spell big trouble for Coal and RR coal traffic
April 20, 2010
Coal in for a Bumpy Ride and a Final Decline | www.huffingtonpost.com
Colorado recently passed a bill that will require a utility to install natural gas fired boilers. In Oregon, the single coal fired plant in the state will also be converted to natural gas within five years. In the East, the tragedy in underground mine and the recent court order restricting mountain top removal mining in the same region have also diminished the prospects for coal in the future. Nationally, this product accounts for over 40% of railroad traffic and over 30% of railroad freight revenues.
CSX profits rise mainly on rate increases for coal shipments
April 14, 2010
CSX sees shipments up across the board this year | finance.yahoo.com
While CSX reported that shipments were up across the board, they were speaking in general terms but referring specifically to traffic levels during the first quarter of 2009. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, intermodal shipments were down 5% as might be expected for this seasonal traffic and carload traffic was only up 1%, mostly due to the lackluster growth (2%) of coal traffic. Profits increased so much because average freight rates for coal movements increased 12% since last quarter.
Great Expectations, but that’s all for the railcar builders
April 13, 2010
Greenbrier Q2 Hints At Rising Rail Demand | www.investors.com
Hope for the railcar builders springs eternal, but reality will eventually have to be considered. It is true that railroad traffic has rebounded from the depths to which it plunged last summer; that railcars that had been stored are being reactivated; and that railroad train speeds are decreasing, increasing the car cycle times and decreasing the number of loads per year that each railcar can handle. However, traffic has a long way to go before it reached the levels recorded a few years ago.
UP must have had a very poor outlook for 2010
March 16, 2010
Union Pacific CEO sees signs of improved economy | www.themorningsun.com
Jim Young, CEO of the Union Pacific Railroad, recently stated that his railroad’s shipments are stronger this year than was anticipated; they must have anticipated a terrible year. Overall, UP shipments, as posted to the AAR, are up 6.5% over the levels posted during the 4th quarter, compared to 4.9% for their 3 other Class I cousins. More gains are expected later in the year as coal traffic increases after the utilities stop reducing their stockpiles.
EADS posts a loss and cancels its dividend
March 10, 2010
In August 2009, I have contributed an analysis and predicted that EADS is in for hard time in the next couple of years and here it is, the Euro 1.5B net profit in 2008 was turned into a net loss of Euro 763M and the cancellation of dividend, an extreme measure for a European /government owned company. The worse is yet to come as the company speeds ups production and invades its backlog.
Arrow Trucking --follow ups thoughts on its real troubles
March 8, 2010
I wrote my analysis in January commenting on a company that did violated a Federal law of plant closure and the obligation of its Directors and Officers to exercise prudence in care and loyalty ot the various stakeholder,but as the regulators state now, this is a Chapter 7 filing without a precedent where the company assets and Liabilities are unknown, & no officers appeared in court or offered any explanation and where the secured lenders were defrauded..its sounds more than chapter 7.
Solar Energy is one pillar of future energy...Ivanhoe in Mojave is just a start
March 7, 2010
[USA] DOE Funds Huge Solar Project ($1.37b) | www.technologyreview.com
Our planet is certainly in need of more generation in the coming decade estimated at an additional 70-100GW .As conventional generation in fossil and others lose steam, Solar,Wind will fill the gap..lets gear up to this idea..less expensive, cleaner and independent energy generation is in our national interest..I hope that California is listening.
Chesapeake Energy bites the natural gas bullet
January 25, 2012
Flurry of newbuild drilling rig deliveries in 2012 may dampen rig rates
January 20, 2012
Talisman joins the ranks of cautious E&P companies
January 12, 2012
Early signs of caution begin to cloud frontier exploration and production
January 4, 2012
It's too early in the game to write off Shtokman
December 8, 2011