Total volume shipped in the first quarter rose 1 percent from the year ago, e ven as c oal volume fell 14 percent d ue to un usually mild winter weather and decade-low natural gas prices tha t cut demand from utilities.
In the merchandise segment, volume was driven by an 18 percent increase in auto-related shipments, an 8 percent increase in metals and a 6 percent increase in forest products.
Intermodal - the shipment of goods in containers that can be moved from one form of transportation to another - rose 9 percent.
"Although utility coal-related headwinds are likely to be stronger in the second quarter, CSX remains on track to achieve year-over-year earnings growth in 2012," Chief Executive Michael Ward said in a statement.
Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX said on Tuesday that net income rose to $449 million, or 43 cents per share, in the first quarter from $395 million or 35 cents per share a year before, bea ting the average Wall Street forecast by five cents.
Quarterly operating revenue rose 6 percent to nearly $3 billion on higher volume and pricing, slightly above the average forecast of $2.92 billion.
"They were anticipating a slowdown in their coal business and they tightened up their operating costs to beat earnings," said Thomas Nyheim, portfolio manager at Christiana Bank & Trust Co., based in Greenville, Delaware, which holds CSX shares.
CSX is the second-largest publicly held U.S. railroad operator.
"The higher revenue coupled with the company's focus on service, productivity and cost control drove an 11 percent increase in operating income to a first-quarter record of $856 million," the company said in a statement.
Analysts expect full-year profit of $1.80 per share, a ccording to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
CSX, the first of the leading public U.S. railroads to report quarterly results, will hold a conference call with analysts before the stock market opens on Wednesday.
Coal overall represents about 23 percent of the railroad's volume and 30 percent of its revenue.
Domestic utility coal volume sank 28 percent in the quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, and was partially offset by a 17 percent increase in coal moved for export.
CSX's utility coal volume fell by 33 percent to less than 1 million carloads in 2011 from 1.5 million in 2006, yet the company posted record operating income in five of those six years, new Chief Financial Officer Fredrik Eliasson said in an interview in March. (Reuters)
