Grain has turned out to be one of few commodities in which Canadian Pacific Railway was able to post improved third-quarter (Q3) revenue this year.
The Calgary-based railway on Tuesday reported net income of $195.4 million on $1.088 billion in total revenues for its quarter ending Sept. 30, up 14 per cent from $170.7 million on $1.265 billion in the year-earlier period.
“We delivered strong cost control and tight resource management this quarter while traffic volumes remained under pressure,” CPR CEO Fred Green said in the company’s release.
“We are continuing to refine and optimize our business processes to further drive structural cost improvements.”
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CPR’s total freight revenues for the quarter came in at $1.062 billion, down almost 21 per cent from $1.34 billion in the year-earlier period.
Grain freight saw a 6.6 per cent increase in Q3 revenue, to $279.6 million. All other commodity sectors saw lower freight revenues, ranging from 23.1 per cent lower on industrial and consumer products to 36.3 per cent lower on fertilizers and sulphur.
Grain and coal were alone among CPR-handled commodities in posting increased carloads in Q3, with grain up five per cent at about 117,600 carloads and coal up 2.3 per cent at about 84,200. Total carloads across all commodities fell 18.2 per cent to about 602,400.
Grain was also nearly CPR’s only commodity group to show increased freight revenue per carload at $2,378, up 1.5 per cent from the year-earlier period. Fertilizer and sulphur revenue per carload rose modestly by $4, to $2,704.
Otherwise, revenue per carload was down, ranging from decreases of 0.3 per cent to $1,191 for intermodal traffic, to a per-carload revenue decrease of 27.3 per cent on coal handling. Freight revenue per carload across all sectors dropped 3.1 per cent to $1,762.
CPR on Tuesday also began including “fully consolidated” Q3 and year-to-date results from its new Dakota, Minnesota + Eastern Railroad (DM+E) subsidiary.
As well, CPR’s Q3 included a total of $79.1 million in pre-tax gains on its sale of Windsor Station (the company’s former head office in Montreal) and on a land sale in Western Canada for “transit purposes.”
CORRECTION, Oct. 28: The previous version of this article had insisted CPR delivered its Q3 results on Wednesday, when in fact they were released Tuesday, Oct. 27. We regret the error.
