(The Associated Press circulated the following on August 3.)
NEW YORK — Shares of railroad operators traded lower Friday, as analysts said volumes are continuing to fall across major segments.
Morgan Keegan & Co. analyst Art Hatfield said rail traffic declined 2.3 percent last week, with overall carloads declining slightly less than 1 percent and volumes for intermodal – which involves moving freight using more than one method of transportation – falling 3.1 percent year-over-year.
The problem is worse for Eastern operators such as CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern, the analyst noted, while traffic is declining more modestly at Western rails including Burlington Northern, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific.
Carloadings divided by commodity group appear more positive, as five out of the eight major groups increased last week compared to the year-ago period. Agricultural products, metals, chemicals and coal – the largest commodity group by volume – all increased between one and two percent, and motor vehicles and equipment rose most notably at 3.2 percent.
The gains were more than offset, however, by a 8.6 percent decrease in nonmetallic minerals and an 11.2 slip in forest products, which is being hit hard by the slow down in the housing market.
In midday trading, shares of Kansas City Southern fell 96 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $33.49.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. slipped $1.14 to $81.08, and Union Pacific Corp. fell $2.05 to $117.94.
Norfolk Southern Corp. lost 71 cents to $53.09, and CSX Corp. slipped 51 cents to $48.64.