GATX Corporation (GATX)

[Enterprising Investor]

Farmers’ Grain Bounty, Crop Exports Buoy U.S. Railroads (11/15/16)

Rail traffic is still recovering from years of steep declines in coal, oil shipments

By Doug Cameron and Jesse Newman

A record fall harvest and surging crop exports are boosting U.S. railroad operators, who are still feeling pain from the collapse of coal and oil shipments.

Farmers across the Midwest -- benefiting from good weather during much of the growing season -- are expected to bring in about two billion more bushels of corn and soybeans than they did last year. Many rely on railcars to transport their crops from grain elevators to processing plants around the country, or to the coasts for export.

Shipments of grain and soybeans are up around 6.5% this year, and set a record of over 26,000 carloads a week during the peak of the harvest in October, according to the Association of American Railroads, a trade group. Leasing company GATX Corp. said every one of its grain cars was in use during the third quarter. CSX Corp., the third-largest U.S. railroad, said grain shipments shot up 27% in the third quarter compared with a year earlier, helping fuel a rally in the company’s stock.

Even so, booming grain traffic hasn’t erased years of steep declines in coal shipments, still the biggest single source of rail traffic, according to industry data. Overall, freight carloads are down 6% this year and thousands of cars designed to carry oil and industrial products are sitting idle.

Railroads are betting the grain boom will continue. Analysts say some orders for oil-tank cars are being converted into purchases of new grain cars. Through the third quarter, deliveries of covered-top railcars used most often in grain service are up 147% from the same period last year, according to the Railway Supply Institute, a trade group.



The railroad operators also have spent billions of dollars to add capacity so they can ship grain faster and with fewer traffic jams. Those improvements have helped avoid a repeat of the 2014 harvest. That year, big crop volumes and more crude-oil shipments caused snarls across the rail network, holding up trains and driving up grain prices. Grain shipments were up nearly 20% last month compared with October 2014, without major delays, rail operators say.

“More grain is moving this harvest to export channels and it’s moving faster,” said Nate Asplund, chief executive of Wahpeton, N.D.-based Red River Valley & Western Railroad Co.

BNSF Railway Co. spent $15 billion over the past three years, much of it to link crop-producing areas to ports in the Northwest and Gulf Coast, said John Miller, vice president for agricultural products. The Berkshire Hathaway Inc.-owned company, the biggest shipper of agricultural products in North America, said such shipments climbed 13% in the third quarter.

Among the improvements: Some 1,000 miles of double track, which allows trains to pass in opposite directions along the same route, and high-speed grain loaders to improve efficiency. Trains hauling 100 or more grain cars are making an average of three trips a month this year compared with 1.8 in 2014, said railroad executives.

Regional railroads like Red River have also invested in new track and facilities. Railroad operators are using new railcars that are shorter and deeper, allowing more to be hauled by a single train. Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. has increased its grain trains to a record 124 cars, and plans to raise this to as many as 134.

Railroads of all sizes have borrowed scheduling tips from the airline industry to maximize capacity.

Just as low-cost carriers look to maximize the number of flights a day from their jets with quick airport turnarounds, railroads have found more efficient ways to load and unload railcars. New equipment has halved the time taken to fill or empty a 115-car train to as little as six hours.

“In the old days we talked about cars. Now we focus on turns per car,” said Mr. Asplund.

The rail industry also got an early jump on this year’s harvest.

Exports soared over the summer as buyers in China and Mexico purchased more soybeans and corn from U.S. farmers following a poor harvest in South America and concerns over currency swings.

U.S. soybean exports more than doubled in July from a year earlier to 98.4 million bushels, and more than tripled in August. Grain cars that usually remain parked until the fall harvest were pressed into service as early as June.

Grain elevator operators said the drop in coal and oil shipments has also reduced rail traffic, leaving more track open for agricultural products.

Roger Miller, chief executive of Premier Cooperative in Champaign, Ill., said in 2014 railroads prioritized oil cars ahead of grain hoppers. This year he said there is “a night and day difference.”

—Bob Tita contributed to this article.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/farmers-grain-bounty-crop-exports-buoy-u-s-railroads-1479729601