(Reuters circulated the following article on November 15.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — U.S. railroad CSX Corp. should see volume growth slow to “around” 1 percent in the fourth quarter thanks to a slower peak season for consumer goods, a top executive said on Wednesday.
“Peak season this year isn’t what it was,” Chief Financial Oscar Munoz told Reuters at the company’s headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. “We won’t like it, but we will weather it.”
CSX reported third-quarter volume growth of 2 percent. Munoz said that the company’s long-term volume growth forecast — 2 percent to 3 percent annually from 2006 to 2010 — remains unchanged.
He added that CSX’s forecast of annual earnings per share growth of between 12 percent and 14 percent in the same period are based on conservative projections for economic growth and could easily be higher.