Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
China ditches Maglev project
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="beaulieu"][quote user="futuremodal"] <p>Well John, I'm suprised you've made a bit of an error in defining "unit". There is a difference between a unit and a platform, and for a single well car the proper definition is 1 unit and 2 platforms - a bottom platform and a top platform. Therefore, if BNSF's FS for intermodal lists revenues per unit, that would include both platforms (aka, two containers) as one unit.[/quote]</p><p>So your saying that a well with only one box in it is 1/2 a unit? or is it one unit at only half the revenue. What about a well with 2 20 ft. in the bottom and a 40 ft on top, Still just one unit? How would you figure cost/price if one was empty? Big revenue difference. Also what you are in effect saying is that there is no difference between a unit and a car. The other interesting thing is that Consumer Products is nearly equal to coal in revenues per car/unit in 2006. </p><p>[quote] </p><p>The revenues for import intermodal is the volume number, not the revenue per unit number which is more descriptive of rate comparisons. For example, you'll see the revenues per import intermodal unit is half that for domestic intermodal per unit.[/quote]</p><p>BNSF 2006 Annual Report gives the total revenues for the category Consumer Products as $5,613 million, this is on page 18. On page 19 it lists the split as 46 percent of the total revenue for International Intermodal and 46 percent for Domestic Intermodal, the balance is Automotive. Please cite the report where you find the different per unit rates. [/quote]</p><p>Well, the report is 4.79MB, and I'm on a 56k modem, so I'm not going to waste a whole hour to download it, but I do remember that you or Michael had posted the report on this forum a while back, and I remember that the intermodal numbers, when divided between import and domestic, showed that the per unit revenues were lowest for the import intermodal, roughly half that of everything else, something like $800 per unit for import intermodal and $1200 to $1500 for everything else. </p><p>But for the sake of staying up to date, let's start with this....</p><p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/10-q-bnsf-railway-co/story.aspx?guid=%7B4CE724D2-7AB5-4A1F-A42B-7EC6EC60847C%7D">http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/10-q-bnsf-railway-co/story.aspx?guid=%7B4CE724D2-7AB5-4A1F-A42B-7EC6EC60847C%7D</a></p><p><strong><u>BNSF average revenue per car/unit for 2007 1st Quarter</u></strong></p><p>Consumer products $1,028</p><p>Industrial products $2,167</p><p>Coal $1,279</p><p>Ag products $2,530</p><p>As you can see, of the four catagories provided by this analysis, Ag is bringing over double the per car/unit revenues of consumer products, which I assume is inclusive of intermodal. Coal indeed is down over historical levels, but is still more than intermodal.</p><p>As for the split cited between import intermodal and domestic intermodal, wasn't it you that stated that much of the import product was being restuffed into domestic boxes, thus being counted as domestic? Wouldn't that obfuscate the difference between import intermodal and domestic intermodal numbers? </p><p>There was an interesting item in ProgressiveRailroading.com about a year ago in which BNSF officials infer that intermodal still wasn't earning a positive return on investment....</p><p><a href="http://www.progressiverailroading.com/commentary/article.asp?id=6463">http://www.progressiverailroading.com/commentary/article.asp?id=6463</a></p><p>"Senior managers have been emphasizing the need to seek higher intermodal rates to the point the traffic segment becomes a value-creation business, capable of earning returns exceeding its costs of capital."</p><p>"For BNSF, intermodal - its <strong><em><u>lowest-return segment</u></em></strong>, but biggest in terms of revenue and carloads - has the greatest potential for price increases in the current rate environment." </p><p>Now, are you telling me that BNSF has turned things completely around in 2007 regarding the inability for intermodal to return positive on investment?</p>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy