Genesee and Wyoming Saw Dive in European Carloads in July 2017

In this last part of the series, we’ll review Genesee & Wyoming’s (GWR) European operations. The company’s European railcars fell 5.9% YoY (year-over-year) in July 2017.

Genesee and Wyoming moved ~91,000 railcars in July 2017 compared to ~97,000 carloads in the same month last year. Excluding coal and coke, carloads fell 4% in July 2017 on a YoY basis.

Genesee & Wyoming’s coal (ANR) railcars tumbled a staggering 67.5% in July 2017. The company hauled 925 coal carloads in July 2017 compared to ~2,900 railcars in July last year. GWR’s coal (ARLP) volumes fell on account of lower UK shipments.

Genesee and Wyoming booked lower shipments of agricultural products and lower intermodal volumes in July 2017. The only commodity group that posted higher volumes in July 2017 was minerals and stone. Intermodal volumes slumped 7.5% mainly due to lowered shipments in the UK. The fall in shipments was driven by the cyber attack on GWR’s customer IT system. GWR, unlike its class I railroad peers, reports freight volume data on a monthly basis.

If you are interested in investing in transport stocks, you can consider investing in the SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (XTN). Prominent trucking companies and railroads in the US make up 14% and 26%, respectively, of XTN’s portfolio.

For regular updates on major US railroad stocks, please visit Market Realist’s Railroads page.