CSX Transportation chief financial officer Fredrik Eliasson announced upgrades to the company’s volume expectations and second quarter and full-year earnings projections. Eliasson reviewed the company’s strong financial performance, citing average annual growth in earnings per share of 20 percent. The performance was achieved while managing a significant decline in coal business, historically the company’s most profitable commodity.

An increase in resources to critical areas of the system helped increase efficiency and in turn, attributed to increase volumes into the second quarter. On time originations and arrivals have also improved during the quarter, with additional meaningful improvements are expected in the second half of the year. Intermodal traffic continued to be the main growth area for the railroad. Additional upgrades to the full-year expectations showed a domestic coal volume decrease of five percent, attributed to low natural gas prices, and export coal volumes are expected to decline to 30 million tons for the year.

—Chase Gunnoe