World Trade - January 2009 - (Page 30) TRANSPORTATION BNSF The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads Rails are carrying more volume at higher rates as shippers complain about competition restraints. BY DAN MCCUE T he North American rail industry’s almost uncanny ability to shift gears and shake off declining loads of consumer goods and automobiles after the collapse of the U.S. housing market appears, for the time being, to have spared it the worst effects of the economic downturn. Through at least the third quarter of 2008, shipments of agricultural products, chemicals, metals and minerals, and particularly, coal—long considered a “defensive cargo” because demand for it doesn’t drop off in time of economic weakness—have been very good for the nation’s Class 1 freight haulers. All four: the Union Pacific, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSX Transportation, and the Norfolk Southern, told industry analysts in a series of conference calls in mid-October that they’d experienced a significant, double-digit increase in profits at a time when it appeared much of the rest of the American economy was tumbling all around them. 2009 But as the financial crisis deepened in the days before those calls, becoming truly global in nature and touching off a renewed period of supply chain upheaval, the nation’s Class 1’s looked to be in for a somewhat bumpier ride, at least in the foreseeable future. A score of factors, ranging from restive shippers to renewed calls for stripping them of their antitrust exemption to projections that the current economic woes will ultimately give way to a need for a doubling of current rail capacity within the next 25 years suggest the railroads’ historic resilience may soon be tested. A little history How one feels about the state of the rail industry today isn’t only a matter of what side of the customer/provider divide one sits on. It is also largely dependent on what time frame one is willing to consider in his analysis. Advocates for the railroad industry, for instance, will 30 WORLD TRADE JANUARY
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Trade - January 2009 World Trade - January 2009 Contents Supply Chain Finance Conference: The Right Stuff at the Right Time! Is the Dollar's 'Exorbitant Privelege' as the Global Standard at Risk? Supply Chain Watch Tradewinds The Rise of the 4PL An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads Intermodal Grows Up Port of Hamburg Grows as Distribution Point to Eastern Europe Outsourcing Without Fear Measuring the Carbon Footprint World Trade - January 2009 World Trade - January 2009 - World Trade - January 2009 (Page Cover1) World Trade - January 2009 - World Trade - January 2009 (Page Cover2) World Trade - January 2009 - World Trade - January 2009 (Page 3) World Trade - January 2009 - World Trade - January 2009 (Page 4) World Trade - January 2009 - Contents (Page 5) World Trade - January 2009 - Contents (Page 6) World Trade - January 2009 - Supply Chain Finance Conference: The Right Stuff at the Right Time! (Page 7) World Trade - January 2009 - Is the Dollar's 'Exorbitant Privelege' as the Global Standard at Risk? (Page 8) World Trade - January 2009 - Is the Dollar's 'Exorbitant Privelege' as the Global Standard at Risk? (Page 9) World Trade - January 2009 - Supply Chain Watch (Page 10) World Trade - January 2009 - Supply Chain Watch (Page 11) World Trade - January 2009 - Supply Chain Watch (Page 12) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 13) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 14) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 15) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 16) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 17) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 18) World Trade - January 2009 - Tradewinds (Page 19) World Trade - January 2009 - The Rise of the 4PL (Page 20) World Trade - January 2009 - The Rise of the 4PL (Page 21) World Trade - January 2009 - The Rise of the 4PL (Page 22) World Trade - January 2009 - The Rise of the 4PL (Page 23) World Trade - January 2009 - An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective (Page 24) World Trade - January 2009 - An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective (Page 25) World Trade - January 2009 - An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective (Page 26) World Trade - January 2009 - An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective (Page 27) World Trade - January 2009 - An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective (Page 28) World Trade - January 2009 - An Evolving Tech Backbone Makes 4PL Service More Effective (Page 29) World Trade - January 2009 - The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads (Page 30) World Trade - January 2009 - The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads (Page 31) World Trade - January 2009 - The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads (Page 32) World Trade - January 2009 - The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads (Page 33) World Trade - January 2009 - The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads (Page 34) World Trade - January 2009 - The Changing Landscape of U.S. Railroads (Page 35) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 36) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 37) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 38) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 39) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 40) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 41) World Trade - January 2009 - Intermodal Grows Up (Page 42) World Trade - January 2009 - Port of Hamburg Grows as Distribution Point to Eastern Europe (Page 43) World Trade - January 2009 - Port of Hamburg Grows as Distribution Point to Eastern Europe (Page 44) World Trade - January 2009 - Port of Hamburg Grows as Distribution Point to Eastern Europe (Page 45) World Trade - January 2009 - Port of Hamburg Grows as Distribution Point to Eastern Europe (Page 46) World Trade - January 2009 - Outsourcing Without Fear (Page 47) World Trade - January 2009 - Outsourcing Without Fear (Page 48) World Trade - January 2009 - Outsourcing Without Fear (Page 49) World Trade - January 2009 - Measuring the Carbon Footprint (Page 50) World Trade - January 2009 - Measuring the Carbon Footprint (Page Cover3) World Trade - January 2009 - Measuring the Carbon Footprint (Page Cover4)
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