Kansas City Southern has published third quarter results with revenues of $699.0m. Growth in revenues was mainly attributable to its Chemical & Petroleum segment in combination with its Intermodal and Automotive segments. The total figure of $699.0m increased from $656.6m, in Q3 2017, which represented a rise of 6.5%.
Driving revenue growth for the business was its Chemical & Petroleum segment. Totalling $160.6m, revenue increased by 17.3% in comparison to the same period of the previous year. Within this segment, petroleum was the driving force due to refined shipments to Mexico resulting in an increase in sales of the product by 35.5%. Other business segments that posted growth included Intermodal and Automotive which grew revenues by 8.3% and 7.8% respectively.
The business segments of Industrial & Consumer Products and Agriculture & Minerals had no reportable change in revenues whilst its Energy business saw revenues decrease by 1.6% to $73.2m.
Improved management of operating expenses led to a higher operating margin of 38.0% as operating income stood at $265.4m for the three months ended September 30, 2018. Excluding a gain on insurance recoveries related to damage and service interruptions from Hurricane Harvey in 2017, adjusted operating expenses in the third quarter of 2018 were $443.0m, 4.8% higher than 2017. Adjusted operating income was $256.0m, 9.5% higher than a year ago.
“Kansas City Southern faced a challenging third quarter, as network congestion in northern Mexico led to a difficult operating environment,” stated Kansas City Southern’s President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick J. Ottensmeyer. “However, we have taken steps that we are confident will restore our service levels and allow us to continue delivering strong and diversified franchise cross-border volume and revenue growth, led by increased refined product shipments to Mexico and strength in Intermodal and Automotive commodity groups.”
Source: Kansas City Southern
