BNSF’s profit up 18% to $488 million in best-ever quarter

BNSF’s profit up 18% to $488 million in best-ever quarter    Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., parent company of BNSF Railway Co., said Tuesday that double-digit revenue increases in each of its four business groups during the third quarter helped it achieve its best ever quarterly results.
   BNSF’s third quarter net income increased 17.9 percent to $488 million, from $414 million a year ago. Operating income rose 18.3 percent to $920 million, compared to $778 million in the same period 2005. Total revenues jumped 18.8 percent to $3.94 billion, from $3.32 billion. Freight revenues increased 18.6 percent to $3.82 billion.
   The railroad reported a 9 percent gain in rail freight volume during the quarter with 165,073 revenue ton-miles.
   “We again handled record volumes in the quarter led by a 10 percent unit increase in coal, and an 8 percent unit increase in both our intermodal and agricultural products businesses. This led to our 18th consecutive quarter of year-over-year volume increases,” said Matthew K. Rose, BNSF’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.
   Quarterly revenue from coal increased 20.3 percent to $748 million with consumer products revenue improving 18.3 percent to $1.58 billion. Industrial products sales rose 17.2 percent to $871 million while agricultural products revenues gained 19 percent to $621 million.
   For the year to date, BNSF reported a net income of $1.37 billion, up 24.3 percent from $1.10 billion after nine months last year. Operating income in the nine-month period rose 21.3 percent to $2.58 billion from $2.12 billion. BNSF’s total revenues for the year so far were up 17.7 percent to $11.10 billion with freight revenue up by 17.6 percent to $10.77 billion.
   BNSF Railway Co. operates about 32,000 route miles in 28 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.