(The following story by Joseph Bonney appeared on The Journal of Commerce website on June 30, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. railroads will reap the benefits of the economic recovery more quickly than truckers, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report.
“We expect railroad sales growth to outpace growth for truckers into the second half of 2010,” the report said.
“U.S. truckers were devastated by the recession, which constrained their ability to invest in new fleet and infrastructure. Consequently, their fleets may be less able to accommodate spikes in demand,” the report said.
Railroads, meanwhile, maintained capital spending during the downturn and will be able to handle increased demand without the bottlenecks that accompanied previous recoveries, Moody’s said.
“Already in the first quarter of 2010, revenue growth for railroads outpaced that for trucks by 13 percent to 6 percent for all publicly traded companies,” the report said. Including companies that do not publicly report results but are rated by Moody’s, the gap is 13 percent to minus 1 percent.