Cindy Sanborn, CSX executive vice president and chief operating officer, updated the company’s expectations for fourth quarter and full-year performance as well as progress on the company’s long-term strategy at Baird’s 2016 Industrial Conference in Chicago.
“In the fourth quarter, we expect an eight cent earnings per share impact related to costs associated with refinancing near-term debt,” said Sanborn. “While we now expect fourth-quarter earnings per share to be down, absent the eight-cent impact, the company’s earnings remain consistent with its prior guidance of flat to slightly down from the prior year.”
Sanborn noted that the company expects that volume will be roughly flat on a reported basis, which includes an extra accounting week in the fourth quarter this year. Strong cost performance is helping to offset those challenges to deliver solid financial performance throughout the year.
Through the third quarter, Sanborn remarked, CSX has delivered approximately $550 million in cost savings through both efficiency initiatives and volume-variable savings through the company’s major cost drivers – labor, fuel and assets – with gains in train length and crew savings, record fuel efficiency, and improved locomotive productivity and asset reliability.