“Unusually severe” winter weather has been blamed for Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CP) lower grain handle in its first fiscal quarter of 2011.
The railway on Thursday booked overall net income of $33.7 million on $1.163 billion in gross revenues for its first quarter ending March 31, down from profit of $101 million on $1.167 billion in the year-earlier period.
“The first quarter was an extremely difficult winter with weather-related outages significantly constraining our capacity and our service to our customers,” CP CEO Fred Green said in a release.
The company, he said, is “intensely focused on improving network velocity and service reliability,” with “additional resources coming online to meet our customers’ growth.”
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In all, CP handled about 605,900 carloads of freight during the quarter, down 3.1 per cent from the year-earlier period. Total revenue per carload reached $1,874, up 2.9 per cent.
Grain freight
CP’s total grain handle for the quarter was 99,400 carloads, down 12.2 per cent, while its traffic in sulfur and fertilizers was up 9.5 per cent at 48,500 carloads.
Total grain freight revenue for the quarter was down 14.5 per cent at $232 million, for revenue per grain carload of $2,334, down 2.6 per cent. Sulfur and fertilizer freight revenue for the quarter was up 9.5 per cent at $129 million, for revenue per carload of $2,660, up $1 from the year-earlier period.
CP logged total operating expenses of $1.1 billion for the quarter, up $94 million. Increased expenses in Q1 included fuel at an average price of $US3.12 per U.S. gallon, up 28 per cent.
