Norfolk Southern (NS) has announced its financial results for the full calendar year and Q4 of 2016. Revenues dropped 5.6% on the previous year to $9.9bn, with Q4 1.1% lower than the same period in 2015.
Due to cuts in expenditure, net income for the year was up 7.2% to $1.7bn. Q4 was also positive as net income increased 15.2% on Q4 of 2015 to $416m.
Volumes were down overall by 2.9% for the year. Merchandise and coal volumes decreased 2.0% and 16.4% respectively, whilst intermodal activity increased 6.5%. However, in Q4 total volumes were up 2.0% on the same period in 2015.
Following poor results in 2015, NS announced a new strategic plan to improve profitability and growth. James A Squires, Chairman, President and CEO said: “2016 was a pivotal year … We delivered $250m of productivity savings and recorded our best ever operating ratio”.
Looking ahead, Squires added that NS are “poised to continue building on our success and deliver an additional $100m of productivity savings in 2017 on the way to our goal of $650m of annual savings by 2020.”
Source: Norfolk Southern
