CN’s grain handle up in record quarter

Traffic in Canadian National Railway’s grain and fertilizers segment rose eight per cent in its latest quarter, helping the company to record quarterly revenue.

Montreal-based CN on Oct. 23 reported net income of $1.134 billion on $3.688 billion in revenues for its quarter ending Sept. 30, up from $958 million on $3.221 billion in its year-earlier Q3.

CN attributed its higher revenues mainly to “higher applicable fuel surcharge rates, freight rate increases (and) the positive translation impact of a weaker Canadian dollar, as well as higher volumes.”

“We continue to see strong opportunities ahead, across multiple existing rail commodities and new supply chain services,” CN CEO J.J. Ruest said in a release.

Ruest credited the company’s engineering team with putting over 80 per cent of the company’s infrastructure expansion projects “fully in service at a time when the network was under heavy traffic,” and noted its remaining expansion work for the year is “on track for completion before winter.”

Quarterly revenue in CN’s grain and fertilizers business segment reached $568 million, up 15 per cent from the year-earlier period.

CN moved 156,000 grain and fertilizer carloads in the quarter, up from 145,000 in the year-earlier Q3, for revenue per carload of $3,641, up seven per cent.

Carloads were up across almost all of CN’s business segments except automotive, while revenue per carload rose across all segments, particularly in coal ($1,965, up 21 per cent), petroleum and chemicals ($4,130, up 20 per cent) and forest products ($4,704, up 14 per cent).

— Glacier FarmMedia Network