NYSE:CP Canadian Pacific Kansas City Q2 2024 Earnings Report $72.48 -0.59 (-0.81%) Closing price 04/25/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$72.24 -0.25 (-0.34%) As of 04/25/2025 06:56 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Canadian Pacific Kansas City EPS ResultsActual EPS$1.05Consensus EPS $0.74Beat/MissBeat by +$0.31One Year Ago EPS$0.62Canadian Pacific Kansas City Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$3.60 billionExpected Revenue$3.58 billionBeat/MissBeat by +$24.90 millionYoY Revenue Growth+13.50%Canadian Pacific Kansas City Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2024Date7/30/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateTuesday, July 30, 2024Conference Call Time4:30PM ETUpcoming EarningsCanadian Pacific Kansas City's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Wednesday, April 30, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 4:30 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckInterim ReportEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Q2 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJuly 30, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 11 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Beau, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to CPKC's Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call. The slides accompanying today's call are available at investor. Cpkcr.com. Operator00:00:17All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to introduce Chris De Bruin, Vice President, Capital Markets to begin the conference. Chris, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:39Thank you, Bo. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I want to remind you this presentation contains forward looking information. Actual results may differ materially. The risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results are described on Slide 2, in the press release and in the MD and A filed with Canadian and U. Speaker 100:01:00S. Regulators. This presentation also contains non GAAP measures outlined on Slide 3. Please note, in addition to our regular quarterly financials, there is supplemental Q2 combined revenue and operating performance data available at investor. Cpkcrdot com, which some of today's discussion will focus on. Speaker 100:01:18With me here today is Keith Creel, our President and Chief Executive Officer Navin Balani, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and John Brooks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. The formal remarks will be followed by Q and A. In the interest of time, we'd appreciate if you limit your questions to 1. It is now my pleasure to introduce our President and CEO, Mr. Keith Creel. Speaker 100:01:41Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon. Listen, before we get into Speaker 200:01:43the results, on behalf of our CPK Safe family, I want to extend our heartfelt prayers and condolences to Pat Oxmier's family and friends. Our family mourns this tragic passing. We extend our deepest condolences to his fiancee, Deanna, his entire family as well as many friends and former colleagues. Pat's vision and leadership played a monumental role in the great history of Kansas City Southern and he helped reshape the railway industry. We've lost a truly remarkable leader and a cherished friend. Speaker 200:02:11All of you knew him as professional and a railroader had nothing but respect and admiration for the material impact he made across so many aspects of our industry and if you had the honor to have enjoyed a friendship with Pat as I did, words will never catch what a class gentleman and human being he was. Pat's legacy lives only to be seen in the work we'll do every day at CPKC. I'm also pleased to be hosting this call in Kansas City at our brand new state of the art U. S. Operations headquarters at Noki Yard. Speaker 200:02:38This facility is just one small example that would have never been possible without Pat's vision and strength as a leader. His contributions as a railroad as a person will never be forgotten. And moving on to the quarter, I'd like to first start by thanking the 20,000 Mr. Allen CPKC family for their efforts in the Q2. As a leader, it's always my honor to represent the results we're going to cover on behalf of this team, which I'm extremely proud of. Speaker 200:03:02In the Q2, the family delivered revenues of 3,800,000,000 dollars up 8%, strong volume growth, an increase of 6%, operating ratio of 61.8%, which is a 280 basis point improvement versus last year and EPS of $1.05 a 27% increase. Certainly extremely pleased with these results. I can tell these numbers that I just walked through do not happen by accident through execution. So on the operating front, I applaud Mark and his operating team for their continued strong operating performance across this network. They delivered significant improvement across a number of our key operating metrics. Speaker 200:03:37Unfortunately, Mark had an unexpected IGRIC procedure he had done yesterday, so he's not with us today. So I'm going to cover his results in his body of work. Average terminals well declined 9% in the quarter, average train speed improved 6%, locomotive productivity up 10% and fuel efficiency improved 2%. All of these results reflect the network that's fluid, it's running well and delivering strong service to our customers as we carry that momentum into the second half. And from a safety perspective, train exits were down 4% and personal injuries an astounding 38% improvement. Speaker 200:04:09I'm extremely proud of the team's continued focus on safety each and every quarter. Commercially, John and his team continue to bring on business that's going to fit our network well, working in close collaboration with our operating and service design team. And the team continues to price the value of the service that this new network uniquely offers. The team is executing on the vision we have when we first proposed putting these networks together and it's leading us to a differentiated outcome. Well, it's been well publicized, the freight environment continues to be challenging. Speaker 200:04:36We're not making excuses. We're leaning into the challenge, recruiting our opportunities that are uniquely enabled by this new network. So in closing, let me say I'm extremely pleased with the first half of the year. I'm even more excited about what the second half holds. We're in a position of strength, return momentum in the second half that we're going to build on. Speaker 200:04:54As I said in January, we're positioned to deliver an exciting year of value creation and that is exactly what this team is delivering. We're uniquely positioned to deliver strong value in 2024 and more importantly for years to come. So that said, John, I'm going to hand it over to you to provide some color on the markets and then Nathan Dean will elaborate on the numbers. Speaker 300:05:11All right. Thank you, Keith, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm extremely pleased with the strong top line growth the team delivered this quarter. This franchise is creating the unique opportunities we've talked about since day 1. Our operations are strong and we're pricing to the value of the differentiated service we are providing our customers. Speaker 300:05:31Now looking at our results on a combined basis, we delivered freight revenue growth of 8% on a 6% increase in RTMs. Sense per RTM was up 2% with strong pricing and a slight tailwind from FX, partially offset by mix. Now taking a closer look at our 2nd quarter revenue performance, I'll speak to an FX adjusted result on a CPKC combined basis. Starting with bulk, grain revenues were up 17% on 15% RTM growth. U. Speaker 300:06:06S. Grain volumes grew 17% over prior year. Our franchise is benefiting from strong shipments of corn to the PNW, Mexico and Alberta along with increased shipments of soybeans and wheat to Mexico, which remains a strong area of synergy growth for CPKC. Canadian grain volumes were up 13% on the quarter as we saw a stronger than expected spring summer sales program emerge as farmers reduce their on farm inventory in preparation of the upcoming harvest. Now looking forward, early indications are that this harvest will be more in line with our 5 year average or if not stronger. Speaker 300:06:51That coupled with our regulated grain pricing of approximately 6.5% has us well positioned in Canadian grain. Now moving on to potash, revenues were up 24% on 11% volume growth. We moved higher volumes of potash with Canpotex to their Portland terminal as we lapped the impact of their ship loader outage back in April of 'twenty three. Now looking forward, potash supply chain is performing very well and export demand is sold out for the second half of the year. We are on pace to set a record all time tonnage with Camptotex this year. Speaker 300:07:29Coal revenue was up 3% on a 2% decline in volume. Lower natural gas prices weakened demand for our U. S. Coal franchise and that weakness was partially offset by more export Canadian coal to Vancouver and Thunder Bay. On the merchandise side, Energy Chemicals and Plastics revenue grew 10% on a 14% volume growth. Speaker 300:07:53The volume growth in the quarter was driven by higher crude as we lap the impact of some outages last year and growth from synergies across just about all of the ECP portfolio, including LPGs, plastics, renewable diesel and refined fuels. We are excited about the wins we've captured in this space as we are connecting markets from Alberta to the Gulf Coast and into Mexico with our single line haul service. Now looking forward to the ongoing ramp up of these synergies, we are set up for a solid second half of 'twenty four in ECP. In the Forest Products area, we were down 1% revenues on a 1% decline in volumes. Forest Products volumes continue to be challenged by a soft macro environment impacting both our paper and lumber products. Speaker 300:08:42However, we are largely offsetting this headwind with synergy growth and extended line haul, shipping more lumber from Canadian producers down to our franchise in Texas and the Gulf markets. Metals, Minerals and Consumer Products revenue was down 3% on a 9% volume decline. Volumes in the quarter were impacted by weakness in frac sand, driven by the lower natural gas prices, but also a labor disruption we had at our Sur Motel steel facility in Mexico. Now looking forward, although we expect the weakness in frac to continue, the labor distraction has ended and we expect Arthur to ramp up production in the back half of the year. In automotive, we produced another record quarter with revenues up 28% on 21% volume growth, an exceptional performance by the team. Speaker 300:09:36Our auto franchise is benefiting from higher longer haul volumes out of Mexico as our closed loop model service solution only continues to ramp up. I'm also pleased to share that our new Dallas auto compound located at our Wiley, Texas Intermodal Terminal opened in late June. This compound is part of our playbook that unlocks an entirely new supply chain model for the OEMs, giving them new competition, service and capacity certainty like they've never had before. Our auto business continues to deliver differentiated growth and we expect a strong performance as we move through the second half of the year. Now on the intermodal side, revenue was down 7% on a 3% volume decline. Speaker 300:10:27Starting with domestic intermodal, volumes were up 3% despite a soft base demand environment. Our MMX or 180, 181 cross border service continues to perform extremely well in what I would consider a very challenging domestic market. Volumes on this service are up 50% since our exit rates at the end of 2023 and we have a strong pipeline of opportunities stacked up to the back half of the year. This includes new wholesale opportunities, new retail opportunities, temp control service operating and new joint line routes into both the Southeast U. S. Speaker 300:11:09And the Ohio Valley markets. Now moving on to the international side, volumes were down 9%, primarily related to timing of the impact of lingering strike uncertainty and the timing of some share shifts in business. With new business ramping up and a solid outlook for demand, we are well positioned across all our ports for the second half of the year. To close, the volumes in the first half came in slightly better than we expected and we're off to a strong start in Q3. While the macro remains challenging in some areas, overall demand has stabilized and more importantly, we continue to have line of sight of strong differentiated growth from synergies, self help initiatives and disciplined pricing. Speaker 300:12:00The operations team is delivering reliable, resilient service to our customers and my team is laser focused on selling into that service and taking advantage of our expansive new network. I'm excited about what we've accomplished so far this year and even more for the opportunities we have ahead of us. So with that, I'll stop and pass it over to Nadine. Well, thanks, John. That's a great report. Speaker 300:12:25So let me start by sharing my enthusiasm for the strong performance for the quarter. Our success is driven by the hard work and dedication of CPKC's railroaders and I'm proud of what the team is accomplishing. Looking at the quarter, CPKC's reported operating ratio was 64.8% and the core adjusted combined operating ratio came in at 61.8%. Earnings per share was $0.97 and core adjusted combined earnings per share was $1.05 up 27%. Similar to what we shared in previous quarters, our combined operating expenses in 2023 illustrate the effects of the acquisition for the 2nd quarter is that the acquisition closed on January 1, 2022. Speaker 300:13:12I will speak to FX adjusted combined operating results in these prepared months. Speaker 200:13:17Now taking a closer look Speaker 300:13:18at our income statement, reported operating expense is provided on Slide 11 and combined operating expense is on Slide 12, where I'll focus my comments. Excluding adjustments, comp and benefits expense was 610,000,000 dollars The year over year decline in comp and benefits was driven by reduced stock based compensation as well as efficiency gains from reduced overtime, improved fluidity and engineering productivity gains. This was partially offset by inflation, volume driven increases from higher GTMs and higher current service costs from our DB pension plan due to a lower discount rate at year end 2020 3. Looking to the rest of 2024, we continue to expect average headcount to be roughly flat on a year over year basis, driving further labor productivity gains as we grow volumes. Fuel expense was $466,000,000 up 9%. Speaker 300:14:15The increase was primarily driven by a $24,000,000 or 4% increase in fuel price, along with volume driven increases from higher GTMs. Increases from price and volume were partially offset by a 2% improvement in fuel efficiency, which resulted in $9,000,000 in savings, another area in order we are seeing network efficiency gains translate directly into margin improvement. Excluding adjustments, material expense was 95,000,000 dollars The decline in the quarter was driven primarily by timing of locomotive and freight car maintenance as activity schedules across the network are aligned. Equipment rents were $82,000,000 down 5% year over year. The decline was driven by reduced car hire payments and receipts along with efficiency gains from improved cycle times and increased network velocity. Speaker 300:15:07Depreciation expense was up 6% resulting from a higher asset base. Excluding adjustments, purchased services and other expense was 581,000,000 dollars Cost of inflation and terminal service costs were partially offset by a year over year decline in capitalistic expense. So overall top line growth in the quarter coupled with strong cost control and execution resulted in a 17% increase in core adjusted combined operating income and a 280 basis point improvement in our core adjusted combined operating ratio to 61.8%. Moving below the line on Slide 13, other income was $40,000,000 driven by higher equity income along with a gain on some debt repurchases in the quarter. Other components of net periodic benefit recovery was $88,000,000 in Q2. Speaker 300:15:59This reflects a lower discount rate compared to 2023 and partially offsetting the headwinds of comp and benefits from current service costs. Net interest expense was $200,000,000 or $195,000,000 excluding the impact of purchase accounting. The decline was driven by a reduced debt balance. Income tax expense was $292,000,000 or $328,000,000 on a core adjusted combined basis. We still expect our CPKC core adjusted expected tax rate to be approximately 25% for the year. Speaker 300:16:32Turning to Slide 14, we are generating strong cash flow and cash provided by operating activities of 1.278 $1,000,000,000 in Q2. Capital investments in safety and growth remain our priority. In this quarter, we reinvested $808,000,000 in line with our expectation to invest approximately $2,750,000,000 in 2024. We continue to make strategic investments in capacity across our network, positioning us to continue efficiently absorbing the growth that the merger has enabled. On the quarter, we generated $526,000,000 in adjusted combined free cash flow and continue to repay debt. Speaker 300:17:13Our leverage ratio was 3.2x and we still expect to reach target leverage in early 2025, at which point we will evaluate shareholder returns with our Board. In review of the quarter, the team delivered another strong volume growth ahead of expectations, along with continued discipline on price and cost control. Synergies are continuing to ramp as the network is performing well. We continue to gain momentum on our expense synergies, improvements in velocity as well as locomotive and car productivity are generating operating savings. We're also gaining procurement savings through consolidating agreements across the company as well as savings in G and A through combining processes and functions. Speaker 300:17:56We're well on track to deliver double digit core adjusted combined earnings growth, growth driven entirely from the business and without any help from shareholder returns. This network is delivering strong and profitable growth and I'm excited for the opportunities we have ahead. With that, let me turn it back to you over to you, Keith. Speaker 200:18:15That's great, Dan. Let's open it up for questions. Operator00:18:19Thank you, Mr. Speaker 300:18:24Creel. Operator00:18:33We go first this afternoon to Chris Wetherbee with Wells Fargo. Speaker 400:18:38Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys, and condolences to the CPKC family and certainly to Pat and his family as well. It will be missed. If I could maybe start a little bit on the synergy side, the revenue synergy side, maybe if we could get a sense of how that's kind of progressing. And as we think about the back half of the year, could we see an acceleration in sort of activity? Speaker 400:19:01I guess, get a sense of kind of what we're thinking about in terms of revenue synergy progress and maybe what we think the exit rate could look like as we get through the end of 'twenty four? Speaker 300:19:11Yes, Chris. So it's John here. Super pleased with progress. We came out of the gates really strong last year and a number of announcements and piled up a pretty good exit rate in the 3.50 range, which we've talked about at the end of 2023. And I mean, maybe just to get to the point, I fully expect we said we'd double that, but I fully expect that we're on a run rate that could get us closer to that $800,000,000 type number as we exit 2024. Speaker 300:19:48And if you think about that, it's really spread pretty evenly across our book. Just to give you a sense, about half of that, I would bump in area of intermodal, so international, domestic, automotive. And then the other half, maybe split pretty evenly between our bulk franchise as we've really seen here this summer, our grain shipments down into Mexico accelerate and then the other half of that being our ECP merchandise business. So I'm quite pleased with where we sit so far here and I expect again a pretty good ramp up as we move through the second half of twenty twenty four. Speaker 400:20:38Great. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Speaker 200:20:41Yes. Thanks, Chris. Operator00:20:45Thank you. We go next now to Walter Spracklin at RBC Capital Markets. Speaker 100:20:49Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. So, John, speaking with you, you spent a bit of your time there on the on your prepared remarks talking on the Dallas Auto Compound opening and some of the opportunity there. Can you talk a little bit about the capacity there? How much you could ramp it? Speaker 100:21:07How quickly it could come on? And if you could frame it quantitatively even better, but just curious to hear what the upside there is on that particular light. Speaker 300:21:18Yes, Walter, I'm really excited about this one. This is an opportunity similar to the playbook in Canada, right? We identified the land available down in Wiley and aggressively got after that opportunity. In terms of capacity, we're looking at a facility that will do, let's say, 160,000 to 180,000 VINs annually. We utilized about 35 acres or so there. Speaker 300:21:52Right now, we've got 3 OEMs that are signed on and actively shipping into the facility. My sense is those 3 probably at full run rate, Walter, get us to 75% capacity roughly in that neighborhood. And then we've got 2 or 3 fish on the line that I'm pretty excited about that I could see coming on maybe even towards the end of this year, but certainly in the 2025. And as you look to the future, the great thing about that location is it's expandable. We can add some capacity there. Speaker 300:22:38And it's really going to provide a pretty unique solution. I also think as you see the production grow in the Eastern U. S. With connections to the NS and CSX, that becomes a pretty big opportunity for the future. Speaker 200:22:53Yes. I would just add to that, that entire opportunity as well as we execute is well beyond our Investor Day guidance and wasn't in the base plan. You've got 430 Acres left Gloucester to expand into. So we have the capacity, we have the land. I think we're going to have the business opportunities. Speaker 200:23:11We've got great partners with CSX and with NS to reach all their markets and feed traffic into that Dallas market and then down to Mexico. So I think it complements uniquely this network that we're optimized. Speaker 500:23:25If anyone is going to be Speaker 300:23:25in Dallas in September, we're going to be doing a tour there. Speaker 200:23:28Yes, we're happy to show that facility off in September. Speaker 500:23:33All right. Thank you Speaker 100:23:34very much. Appreciate the time. Speaker 300:23:36Thanks, Walter. Operator00:23:38Thank you. We go next now to Fadi Chamoun at BMO Capital Markets. Speaker 500:23:44Yes. Good. Thanks for taking my question. Keith, maybe you can give us an update and I wanted to ask you, John, like typically your second half does end up being a little bit stronger than the first half from a volume perspective, like just typical seasonality, I guess. But how are you seeing some of the diversion issues that you have experienced in the Q2 and you're experiencing now? Speaker 500:24:15Is it stabilizing? Do you think that there's potential for more kind of headwind on that front as we look into in the 3rd Q4? Speaker 300:24:26Fady, you cut out on the question to Keith. Can you just repeat it, please? Yes, the first part. Speaker 500:24:33The first part is just about an update on the labor situation, if you can just give us your little thoughts on that. Speaker 200:24:42Okay. Well, as we all know, we've been trying our dead level best to make sure we keep our customers updated and all key stakeholders. The CRIB took hold of a question that the Minister of Labor challenged relative to potential threat to Canadian safety. We're waiting for a ruling on that question. They've committed to have that ruling come out by August 9. Speaker 200:25:07What we've asked for in return is essentially a little bit of time for our customers to plan so they can railroads in the nation being shut down. That said, the parties although we stay at the table, we're far apart. I'm just being transparent and honest. It's going to be a challenge. We've offered to enter to binding arbitration given we understand the potential damage to the Canadian economy. Speaker 200:25:44We understand the damage and the pain and suffering on our employees even those that might be out on strike as well as those that aren't out on strike. So it's not a good outcome for anyone. But that said, at this point, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. It's most probable that we'll have a work stoppage both railroads. My guess is best guess, they release the parties by the night that would put a word stoppage probably sometime the end of the month is what I would be guessing at and planning for. Speaker 200:26:15But again, we won't know until that really comes out Speaker 300:26:17to the CRB at or on Speaker 200:26:20the later than August 9th based on our commitment. Yes. Speaker 300:26:25And Fady, a few things here I would say. Certainly, I feel better about where I thought I was going to be at this point of the year and I do have quite a bit of optimism around the run rate if you think about the back half of the year. Now that being said, Speaker 200:26:43I'll tell you, we still got to as Keith just spoke to, we Speaker 300:26:46got to get through what is likely going to be a strike that brings a certain level of uncertainty. Of course, we've got an election year. We've got a macro environment that is still not great in some areas. So that being said, maybe the counterbalance to that is, as I said, I think we're shaping up for a pretty good grain season. And we are really well positioned in the Western Corridor in terms of our capacity and being able to provide the service our grain shippers need in that region. Speaker 300:27:22In addition, I'm super excited about what we've been able to do in the U. S. And bringing Mexico into our portfolio of destination. So I definitely see the bulks accelerating, I think, in a pretty sizable way as we move through the back half of the year. We're going to keep slogging along on the domestic intermodal front. Speaker 300:27:46I'm pleased with the growth, but a tough market out there. There's no doubt about it. So we'll see how that unfolds. I'm excited about some things we have ramping up in that business unit. And frankly, some of those merchandise areas kind of present a little bit of a mix headwind in some of those opportunities. Speaker 300:28:11As you know, that carload area is pretty strong sense for RTM, but that's an area where in the forest products and steel and some of those areas where we're definitely not counting on a rebound the back half of the year. So hopefully that's a little bit more color. Speaker 200:28:28Yes, I think, Fady, there's one more thing I think it's important that everyone takes away. Our guidance is assuming the work stoppage. So unless it's one of long duration, when I say long more than 2 weeks, we're anticipating that, we're planning for that and it's not going to impact our guidance. Once we get beyond that, I think we'll be in a very good position to have a better more responsible lot of sites at the end of the year. We'll see how the labor situation plays out. Speaker 200:28:52We'll have a good picture of grain, I think by then and then we'll look at if we need to change in our outlook. Speaker 500:28:59Thank you. Appreciate it. Operator00:29:03Thank you. We go next now to Steve Hansen with Raymond James. Speaker 600:29:09Yes, good afternoon guys. Speaker 700:29:10Thanks for the time. Look, if I'm listening to Speaker 400:29:12your recap this evening, it's almost like you weren't operating in the Western Corridor. 1 of your peers talked about a lot of congestion problems in the West and it raises a lot of questions about ultimate capacity at West here and how that service serviceable into the key corridors or the key port terminals out here. I mean, how do you feel that you're able to escape the congestion issues that the other faced? And do you feel like the capacity into the key jurisdiction here is still sufficient for you? Any comments around that would be super helpful. Speaker 200:29:43Yes, Steve, let me focus our comments on CPKC and I've said this all along, you can't oversubscribe your network, you've got to understand your capacity, you've got to understand your limitations and you sell to the strength of your franchise. You don't oversell it, you don't oversubscribe it, you got to have the right number of locomotives, right number of cars, right number of crews, you got to understand where the business is coming on and at our railroad, we focus intently in a very disciplined fashion and making sure that we right size our assets and we sell to that capacity. That's a discipline. If you let your aspirations get ahead of your capacities then ultimately I know that we would get in trouble. And as an operating CEO, I'm intently focused on that routinely. Speaker 200:30:28It's a discipline that's woven into our DNA and as or anyone that I train and work with has anything to do with this railroad, that's the way CPKC will be running Canada, U. S. And Mexico. It's the recipe for truly running a true precision scheduled railroad that provides great service, controls cost, allows earned margins and allows it to be sustainable for your customer because they're making their decisions based on our ability to keep our word and do what we say we're going to do. And the last thing I want to do is destroy that credibility because they have very short Speaker 600:31:05Very helpful. Thanks. Operator00:31:10Thank you. We go next now to Tom Wadewitz with UBS. Speaker 400:31:16Yes, good afternoon. Keith, I wanted to ask you how you think about or John, how you think about capacity of some of the services you have? And also maybe how we think about the potential for 2025 to be a strong margin expansion year? I guess I think of just one example, but 180, 181 that you probably still have good amount of capacity. So you see some growth, it should be pretty strong incremental margins. Speaker 400:31:44You've had some noise this year kind of, I guess, anticipating the labor issue and so forth. So I just wonder if you have kind of a broad thought that potentially set up for a pretty strong margin expansion here next year and how you think about available capacity on some of the services you have? Thank you. Speaker 200:32:01You. We're well positioned from a capacity standpoint, Tom. It's a great question. 180, 181 is a perfect example. We're eating some margin because we've got that service out there. Speaker 200:32:11But to John's point, it's up 50% here since the beginning of the year. That train is running at half train length. So we still have additional capacity to sell into and the margins only improve once you get the base cost covered in that train start. So again all across this network, all these lanes that we're selling, we said this to the SDV and I'll say it again and again and again, we're building this network out to match these synergies so that we can onboard this business, not deteriorate our service offering, not deteriorate our car cycle times, our locomotive productivity, all those things that allow us to run a successful business to be able to continue to pour records amount of capital into this network so they can grow in a responsible way that rewards the shareholder as well as provides the customer the reliable service they need. That's the recipe. Speaker 200:32:57It's not rocket science. The issue is having the discipline to execute. And if you do that, you're going to continue to put yourself in a position of success that quite frankly has proven to be very unique in this industry. Speaker 400:33:12Do you think the available capacity is it's fair to think it's broader than that particular service that you would have it across kind of multiple areas in the network? Speaker 200:33:23I would say we're not capacity constrained in any lane. That's probably the best way to say it. And think about the capital that we're spending in line with our STV submission, we said we're going to spend about $275,000,000 We're well on our way. We've got 7, 8 side exam. We've got the bridge of Laredo that's about to be completed. Speaker 200:33:41I was just looking at the progress of it a couple of hours ago. It will be done, it will be online. We've got 6 or 7 capital projects we did not even plan that we added into the capital envelope in Mexico based on the learnings of last year when we put that task force down there that haven't came online yet. So they're at what I would call critical capacity points. Once that capacity comes online, you're going to see locomotives move faster, you're going to see cars move faster, you're going to see costs come down and guess what, you're going to create capacity for more growth. Speaker 200:34:11So again, this network is not capacity constrained. It's our job to make sure that we don't get in that position as long as our customers work closely with us, they give us good forecast. Now I'm not going to say that we can go back to March of this year and we had a 40% increase of business on the West Coast of Vancouver and it oversubscribed that supports, it actually did. We took decisions, we took steps responsibly responding to that in March to make sure we weren't oversubscribed. We allow contracts clauses to be relaxed, so the traffic could be diverted, so that our customers could still continue to meet their customers' expectations. Speaker 200:34:48We also allowed contracts shifting to occur early in anticipation of the strike because we knew at that time we thought the strike was going to happen in May and it was our responsibility to make sure we protected our capacity so that we could deliver for our customers and bounce back that strike in very good fashion and that's exactly the rhythm and the discipline that we've applied as we go forward. Whether the strike happens in August, September, October, God help us, it doesn't. We need to get this uncertainty over. But this railroad is going to deal with what we can deal with, control what you can control and you're going to have a very differentiated outcome if you do that. Speaker 300:35:27And Tom, let me just add, we laid out a year ago guidance for 2024 to 20 28 of high single digit revenue growth. And we're right on track for that in year 1, and we have plenty of capacity to support that revenue growth and we're going to bring it on at a low incremental cost. Speaker 400:35:47Great. Thank you for the time. Speaker 700:35:50Thank you, Tom. Operator00:35:53We'll go next now to Scott Group with Wolfe Research. Speaker 100:35:57Hey, thanks. Good afternoon. And I echo the condolences on Pat from earlier. Nadeem, at the beginning of the year, you talked about an inflation sort of catch up. Can you just give us an update on how that's playing out and same store price trends? Speaker 100:36:15And then maybe just John, just some thoughts like the RTM carload spread is just so wide right now. I think it was like 10 points in the 2nd quarter, similar spread in the 3rd quarter. Is this the right way to think about the business sort of going forward with the synergies? Or is there something sort of unusual just given commodity dynamic? How should we think about this? Speaker 100:36:39What's the right spread, I guess, going forward? Speaker 300:36:43Scott, you're right on. I mean, we highlighted that there's going to be an opportunity to have some pricing catch up just the way the contracts the nature of the contracts and just the way that cost inflation has surged so much in the previous, call it, 18 months, 22 months and 24 months. So we're starting to see on the cost side inflation moderate kind of in that mid-3s, 3.5% kind of level. We're seeing the strength of our service being rewarded in the marketplace and we're seeing kind of the same store pricing in that north of 5. So that spread of pricing versus inflation is widening. Speaker 300:37:26And I don't see that changing. In fact, I see that accelerating to an extent more so because I see inflation moderating further. I mean, we've seen that across the board of whether that's on the material side. Labor has been a bit higher. But again, that's going to moderate over the next year. Speaker 300:37:45And so I think we're going to see the benefits of strong pricing and lower inflation. I think that's going to be helpful to our margin story. And Scott on the RTM and carloads question, Speaker 200:37:58I mean RTM to us what we get paid for, they're the most important metric even more so with this new expanded link to follow network. So what you're seeing in the spreads today is accentuated or exaggerated because we haven't yet lapped that loss of the short haul low profit business that left us, I guess, it was Q4 of last year. Order of magnitude, that's 170,000 carloads. So if you get caught up in the carloads, you're going to miss the power of what's really occurring. Every carload that we have with converting lead to fall, whether it's 30% longer, 40%, 50%, your models aren't going to catch it. Speaker 200:38:33So again, RTM should be the Holy Grail when it comes to this railroad, not carloads. Speaker 100:38:41Makes sense. And just so I understand your point, Nadim, even if even with the new labor deal coming, you still feel good about labor inflation, overall inflation slowing? Speaker 300:38:54I do. I do. I think we've been accruing at what we anticipate a fair ruling and a fair kind of win win situation between us and labor. And so I'm not concerned about that. I mean, on near term, we're going to have a bit of a headwind. Speaker 300:39:10We had a significant casualty costs that we faced in July that we're going to feel in the Q3. That being said, there's still 2 months left in the quarter and we're going to keep them on the rail and we can help mitigate some of those costs. And I think we've seen some additional stock based comp costs that we're going to feel in Q3 year over year. Outside of that, the way the network is running and the operating leverage that I see in front of us, I think, it more than offsets some of those costs. And I think we're going to have a very strong backup half of the year. Speaker 300:39:48So perhaps not sequential improvement in the OR in Q3 because of some of those headwinds I just mentioned. But I think in Q4, we're set up to have a record operating ratio for CPKC, and I think it's going to be a very strong finish to the year, and it's going to set us up for a 2025 that I think could be a very powerful earnings model. And Scott, just maybe just want to comment on the carloads and RTMs, like just to give you an example, like right now, I think Q2, our average length of haul was up about 6%. But if you look at our domestic intermodal, it was up over double digits on average length of haul. And again, that's just indicative of what exactly Keith described on that shift in business. Speaker 300:40:40And frankly, as I look out to the second half of the year, as I see some strength in, I think, our inter national franchise, there's a really good chance we can play catch up and kind of you'll start to see that deviation come closer together as we move through Q4. Speaker 100:41:03Very helpful guys. Thank you. Speaker 500:41:06Yes. Thank you, Scott. Operator00:41:10We'll go next now to Brandon Oglenski at Barclays. Speaker 200:41:16Thanks for taking the question and again condolences to Pat and family and friends. Keith or maybe John, I guess when you speak about the Laredo bridge expansion, maybe we're overemphasizing how much capacity that adds to the system. But how do you approach that with a balanced outlook for growth with customers, but also balancing the need to keep consistent service? And where do you think we're going to see the results from that expansion most immediately in 2025? You're going to see the results to me would be about train speed and train velocity. Speaker 200:41:52It's going to be singles and doubles. There's not going to be any big home runs. If you think about it today, you're running 4 hour windows. So it's suboptimal when it comes to trains. You've got a number of trains that are going to be in queue, could be in queue for an hour, could be in queue for 4 hours before it gets changed. Speaker 200:42:09All that goes away. The queue disappears. We get to make needs on the bridge. We'll work well with UP. UP is going to work well with us. Speaker 200:42:17It's going to be a smooth transition. We're working out the details now for UP to have a crossover coming off that second bridge. So again, we're both co located on the bridge. We both will do better. The velocity is going to improve and our assets are going to turn faster. Speaker 200:42:32So again, it will be baked into the metrics that are all beating home runs, but it makes a meaningful difference in today's operation and most especially in tomorrow's growth. Speaker 300:42:42And Brandon, it's a differentiator in the marketplace. It is what my team is using to sell to the customers and expanding down in Mexico and really feeding that cross border service. It's about security. It's about service. It's about capacity. Speaker 300:42:59And the second bridge, honestly, just adds to that capability that differentiates us against other routes in and out of Mexico. And that's a strong selling point to our customers. Speaker 100:43:17Thank you, both. Operator00:43:21We'll go next now to Jon Chappell at Evercore ISI. Speaker 700:43:27Thank you. Kind of staying with that theme, John, we're getting a lot of, I think, concern or maybe even excitement depending on who you are on potential tariffs and what that means, especially in New Mexico. What are your customers telling you about potentially front end loading or being more proactive as it relates to imports either the West Coast to Canada or to Mexico? And then also where does the service stand right now? I know there were some maybe hiccups at the initial stages of the integration. Speaker 700:43:54I know Mark and his team made a lot of headwinds or a whole lot of progress there. Where is the service down on Mexico if there is a surge in the coming months? Speaker 200:44:05Service has never been better. Over to you, John. Yes. Speaker 300:44:07Honestly, John, we just ran a number of tough loads, imports through Lazaro up into the Houston market. I think they're on our rails for 3.5 days. That excludes time at the port in that really good customer experience. I would say it's been up to your point, it's been a slug. It's been educating around what importexport freight can look like through Mexico. Speaker 300:44:37So it's been a pretty big learning curve with the customers, but we're starting to produce some results. And I'll just give you an example, and you've probably seen some of this, but we've actually had 5 new service calls recently announced at Lazaro, a couple of new mare services, O and E, MSC, a CMA. And I think what we're seeing is we're building confidence. The service level is, as Keith said, is strong and we're demonstrating that. And frankly, there's good demand intra Mexico. Speaker 300:45:16But that intra Mexico demand brings with it the opportunity for space on those boats to then flourish and provide capacity for cross border. And you're right, we certainly have some pending labor issues that could take place on the East Coast and combined with these new services that we think it sets us up well for continuing to grow that Lazaro opportunity in the back half of this year and into 2025. Speaker 700:45:50Thanks, John. Operator00:45:56We'll go next now to Ken Hoexter at Bank of family. Speaker 700:46:00I've known Pat for over family. I've known Pat for over 20 years and always brought definitely smiles to the room. But just to clarify, Nadim, on your OR improvement, I guess you're not looking for OR improvement in the Q3 and I think you said significant improvement. Is that like maybe 300 plus basis points to get to sub-sixty in the 4th quarter to get to your double digit earnings? Does that sound right? Speaker 700:46:27And then is there a clarification on the level of stock based comp return that comes back? And then lastly, just a quick one for John. It looks like the grain crop, I think you've got an average crop built in. It looks like we've got a decent one shaping up. Any thoughts on the size, scale of the market at this point? Speaker 300:46:45That's it, Ken. Just sequentially, I don't see necessarily improvements in the OR just given, like I said, some derailment costs in July and some additional stock based comp in this quarter relative to a year ago and higher versus Q2. As far as Q4, we had a very strong Q4 operating ratio in 2023 and that's a year over year improvement in the OR Q4 2024 versus 2023, which puts you at a very good operating ratio? Speaker 800:47:20Yes, Ken. Speaker 300:47:23Being a grain guy, it's never made until it's in the bin, but we are pretty optimistic in Canada. And I think what we're particularly optimistic about is if you think about last year's crop and even going back to the 2021, 2022 drought crop, our growing territory felt more of the effects of that. And as we sit here today, we certainly see significant improvement in the CPKC growing territory in southern part of the provinces. In terms of projections, we've kind of settled in in our mind and our modeling at about a 73,000,000 metric ton or so. But customers are talking about possibly 75000000 to 78000000 metric ton type crop. Speaker 300:48:19So we'll see. We got a little bit time left to go. And but certainly optimistic that it could be a strong rainfall. Speaker 700:48:31Great. Thanks for the thoughts and time. Appreciate it. Speaker 300:48:33Yes. Thanks, Ken. Operator00:48:37We'll go next now to Brian Ossenbeck at JPMorgan. Speaker 600:48:43Hey, afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe Nadeem, just to follow-up on the OR commentary. I mean, that seems pretty reasonable that it would deteriorate if you're expecting a labor disruption here in the quarter. So I just wanted to clarify that or maybe the derailment is a bit bigger Speaker 300:49:01than we thought. Speaker 600:49:02And then just for John, if you can give us some context around the end markets that are potentially affected by the peso. We've seen a pretty big swing post elections probably going to stay a little bit more volatile in the coming quarters. So does that impact on those calls if Lazaro be able to offset that with other maybe cost improvements or maybe price it on a dollar basis? Like how do you work through that volatility and what are the customers looking for? Speaker 300:49:31Well, Brian, honestly, I don't know if we felt a whole lot of effect at this point or at least I can differentiate what would be just sort of broader macro softness in some of the areas in and out of Mexico, that Carlo business, particularly like some of our steel business down in that area. I honestly because we don't have a what I would consider regular cross border importexport business at this point in Lazaro. I haven't really felt much on that. And frankly, I would say just the opposite to customers, the steam ship lines we're working with because of the strength with Intermexico that we're seeing right now have actually been pretty excited about what the cross border opportunity could present. I don't know if that's just forward thinking, Brian, in terms of expectations on the peso to moderate some or not. Speaker 300:50:40But nothing I can really call out to you right now that has materially impacted our cross border flows. And Brian, just reiterate on the OR, yes, we had near term additional costs associated with some casualty, that is going to be a step up in costs in the quarter. And then, yes, I mean, reasonably, we think we're going to have a labor disruption and that's going to have an impact on the OR. So I think from our perspective, I think it's responsible to highlight the fact that there's going to be costs to save what we think is going to occur. You're sure Pete mentioned that maybe end of August, that's a likely event. Speaker 300:51:20And so factoring that into what we think is going to be our margins in Q3 is responsible. You're going to get me in trouble with Tony Hatch for talking about the OR so much. Speaker 600:51:33Okay. Thanks very much. Speaker 300:51:35Thank you. Speaker 700:51:38We'll go next now to Kevin Chiang at CIBC. Hey, thanks for taking my question and good afternoon everyone. I'm just wondering with FMC halting this Gemini alliance, does that have any near or medium term implications in terms of some of the growth you envisioned either later this year or into 2025? Speaker 300:51:59Yes. It's a really good question, Kevin. You know the since frankly since COVID, the international business unit is the volatility in some of those freights and port flows, as Keith spoke to earlier that we experienced in March, April, has presented more challenges. And I can tell you we are strategically as much as we say very much into picking our partners and how we align rethinking in a lot of areas, how we think about that international space. Certainly, Hapag is one of our largest customers and most trusted partners. Speaker 300:52:39We also have a significant business with Maersk. So I would tell you, generally speaking, I'm excited about it. I think it presents opportunities from us for us coast to coast, both Vancouver and in Port of St. John. And certainly, then with APM Terminals operating down at Lazaro and frankly Maersk announcing 2 day services or actually a new service and revised service where they're calling on Lazaro ahead of Manzanillo, I think presents a really good opportunity for us. Speaker 300:53:16Now we'll see that it's not all done yet. I know they're working through a lot to get that completed. But if in fact that does what we think it could, it could present a certainly a good opportunity in the international space in 2025. Speaker 700:53:33That's great. Thank you for taking my question. Operator00:53:40We'll go next now to Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Speaker 800:53:45Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the question. I apologize if this is asked earlier, but it's looking at the most recent weekly kind of RTM data, it does look like you're standing apart from maybe some of your peers as of late. So just curious if you're seeing anything kind of specific maybe having to do with some near term dynamics, fires, strikes, the like. Just kind of curious who does seem to stand out a little bit or does this have to do with maybe a big jump in Mexico? Speaker 800:54:16But maybe if anything you can speak to some of the early 3Q performance on the RTM front? Thank you. Speaker 300:54:25Yes. I mean, we are lapping the port strike from a year ago. That's been beneficial. But certainly, I mean, we're seeing strength across the board. And what have been some macro challenges, if you think about domestic intermodal, for example, that's turned into a positive. Speaker 300:54:41We're starting to see confidence in the new grain crop. So grain is strong year over year. So I think across the board, I think we're up almost 14% RTMs quarter to date. Now that's going to slow a little bit as we lap this strike benefit year over year or strike comp. But I think we're still set up for a very strong Q3 and back half of the year. Speaker 300:55:11So I agree with you, we are kind of setting ourselves apart from some of our peers. If you think about this transaction and what it provided, we kind of did things a little bit backwards. We saw the benefits of synergies on the front end in an environment where the macro was weak. Now we're going to continue to see the synergies ramp up. John talked about the exit rate closer to $800,000,000 on the top line. Speaker 300:55:38But now we're also starting to see the base business that was weak in the last year and a half start to rebound. So Canadian grain is a big part of our franchise. We're starting to see that recover. On the intermodal side, we're starting to see the benefits of our domestic franchise and some of our market share wins, and we're starting to see the macro improve. So that's going to start being a tailwind. Speaker 300:56:00So some of the base business, and I can go on with coal and potash, is starting to recover. And so as that base comes on with synergies, we're seeing kind of that double effect of outsized growth that we talked about at our Investor Day last year. And I think that is going to create a lot of operating leverage and allow us to get that growth to the bottom line. That's why we're so excited about 2025 and beyond. Speaker 800:56:28Got it. So you wouldn't necessarily call out any kind of short term dynamics that you're seeing in the last couple of weeks because of some kind of outside event, so to speak, is this kind of you're running the playbook as you outlined? Speaker 300:56:43Yes. A little bit of the comps year over year, easy comps from the strike that occurred a year ago at West Coast Sports in Canada, the benefit. But outside of that, no. Speaker 800:56:55Okay. Really appreciate the time. Thanks, guys. Speaker 300:56:58Thanks, Stephanie. Operator00:57:02We'll next now to Cherilyn Radbourne of TD Cowen. Speaker 900:57:08Thanks very much. Good afternoon. Thanks for squeezing me in. John, I was just hoping that we could dig in a little bit more on the exit run rate on the revenue synergies, which sound like it could be up to $100,000,000 higher than originally expected. Could you talk about where you're seeing that outperformance from an end market perspective and whether that is evenly balanced as synergies overall? Speaker 300:57:36Yes, Cherilyn. So a couple of things. When we originally built this 2, 3 years ago, like the world autos was an area initially we thought would be a longer autos was an area initially we thought would be a longer term story, but actually is with our Wiley compound and some of the opportunities out in Mexico has actually pulled ahead to be an early story. As you think about the intermodal business, and I'm going to say largely domestic intermodal and autos, that's making up roughly, I'm going to say about half slightly below half of the synergies. And then the other half is split between our bulk in our merchandise ECP franchises. Speaker 300:58:32Now an area I'll call out that we didn't expect to be quite as strong at this point with some of our grain into Mexico. But I'll give you an example. This month in July here, we've run, I think, 15 trains between corn, wheat, soybeans off of our traditional legacy CP franchise, whether it be Southern Canada, North Dakota, Minnesota, down into Mexico. I think the prior month was 9, the prior month of that was 6, if my memory calls. So we're seeing a nice ramp up in that Bolt franchise that maybe coming on a little stronger than I initially had anticipated. Speaker 300:59:20I hope that helps. Speaker 900:59:22That's perfect. Thank you. Operator00:59:29Thank you. We go next now to Kanar Gupta at Scotia Capital. Speaker 100:59:34Thanks, Amy. Good afternoon. Thanks for squeezing me in. John, I think you alluded to earlier on the call about some international intermodal shifts. There was some market share shift as well as some new wins. Speaker 100:59:47Can you please elaborate? And then, Nadim, I think you mentioned about some cost impact in Q3. Any early sense on the magnitude of those 2 items, casualty and stock based pharma? Thanks. Speaker 300:59:59Yes. Karam, just on the share piece, just call it Speaker 201:00:03like it is. Speaker 301:00:04We shifted Costco partially out of our franchise at Vancouver and we brought on a corresponding piece of O and E Business. And again, this goes back to what I was talking around, really rightsizing our partners at the Port of Vancouver and also with an eye to what these partners can do with us across our entire franchise. So St. John, Lazaro and as we kind of rework this book, there might be more to come in how we do that. But rest assured, we're high grading the overall franchise value of the book with those shifts and doing it with an eye towards using our entire network now that we have the leverage of CPKC. Speaker 301:01:02And Konark, just on the stock based comp, I mean, as you know, we mark to market each month. So that amount is still to be determined. We'll see what occurs on September 30 when the quarter ends. And on the casualty side, we had one incident alone that was in July earlier this month that was in the neighborhood of $45,000,000 $50,000,000 worth of costs. So that's why I highlight just how this is going to be a headwind. Speaker 301:01:35And so like I said, there's an opportunity to maybe avoid costs in the remaining part of the quarter. That's our goal and intent to keep them on the rails. But just given this cost occurred, I wanted to make sure I highlighted it. Thank you. You're welcome. Operator01:01:58We'll go next now to Ravi Shanker at Morgan Stanley. Speaker 401:02:03Thanks, enough everyone. And our thoughts are also at the CPC company as well. Just kind of on that point, and thank you for the size of those 2 items. If I can ask you as well, you said there are some strike related cost items in the guidance or in the OR walk as well. Is that purely kind of a cost thing? Speaker 401:02:22Or are you also trying to quantify any diversion of volumes away that you're seeing right now and to come? And also on that diversion, is that something that snaps back right after you have resolution? Or does that take longer like it was last year with the port strikes or how do you see that playing out? Speaker 301:02:41No. So we've already faced some revenue headwinds in May before the labor disruption was delayed, if you will. I'm not factoring necessarily into the commentary about an OR sequential headwind related to that. So anything tied to revenues, I think it's going to be a delayed revenue, if anything. So I think it's a cost element. Speaker 301:03:09I think we're going to start we will see the network be brought to a halt and then to ramp back up, it takes some costs, it takes time. You have these inefficiencies over a period of whatever the 72 hour notice and then whatever period that the company is out. So that's how I would highlight the cost headwind associated with the strike. And Matt, can you put a number to it to make Dean's point? Domestic intermodal, right, can be trucked and certainly we'll face some of that. Speaker 301:03:47But the rest is kind of, as he said, delayed and it'll push volume certainly into Q4 and likely into Q1 of next year, depending on how long the stoppage would be. And the uniqueness of this time is that we've got both railroads, right? That creates a very different scenario than we faced over the last 20 years. And so it puts a different pressure on the supply chain and then it has a different dynamic as far as the recovery for the supply chain as per Canada as a whole post labor disruption. Speaker 401:04:28Understood. Thank you. Speaker 301:04:30Thanks, Ravi. Operator01:04:34And we'll go next now to Ben Nolan with Stifel. Speaker 601:04:38Thanks. I appreciate you guys getting in. I wanted to go Speaker 501:04:41back a little bit to pricing. Speaker 601:04:43I know that it has and you alluded to this a little bit ago, but there were still some legacy contracts pre merger that were set to be repriced and I think you're doing Speaker 301:04:58some of that in the Q3. Curious if all of that Speaker 601:04:58has been worked through, if there might be a little bit more juice to squeeze Speaker 301:05:03on some of those contracts? You know what, we are getting into the late innings of the base book. There's probably one big one out there that remains. But for the most part, we have worked through just timing wise, they didn't have a lot of multi year contracts. Most of them were annual. Speaker 301:05:24We've been at this now going on close to a year and a half or whatever since April of 'twenty three. So we've rolled a lot of that over now is the direct answer. Speaker 601:05:37All right. Speaker 501:05:37Thank you. Speaker 301:05:39Yes. Operator01:05:42And we'll go next now to Benoit Poirier of Desjardins Capital Markets. Speaker 1001:05:47Yes. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Could we maybe cut back on the overall labor issues and whether you believe it put Canada reputation at risk? And do you feel that there's a lot of business on the sidelines that could come back in line of labor resolution? Speaker 1001:06:06And also, if we look in the U. S, there's the port workers, the contract with the ILA port workers that is set to expire in September 2024. And I was just curious to see whether you see any potential benefits in light of positive cargo diversion? Thank you. Speaker 201:06:27And then I'll take the reputational damage. It's undeniably present. You think about what Canada is going through the 4th strike last year, how long that lasted and how much pain and suffering that caused for customers, how much credibility impact, some of that traffic is not came back to the West Coast. So undeniably, fast forward to this, you have both railroad shutdown. At some point, customers as much as they need our products in Canada, they're going to get labor unrest fatigue. Speaker 201:06:59So we got to get beyond this. I don't have a magic bullet for this. I don't know what the secret answer is. All we can do is continue to be at the table. We had figured out how to negotiate successfully with every other collective agreement we have in Canada. Speaker 201:07:13This is the only group TCRC that we just can't get there. So we're going to not give up, remain cautiously optimistic, but we're not going to do a bad deal either. I'm not going to punish this company and let this company suffer because we don't have the discipline to say no and do what's in the best long term interest for all employees that's fair across all employees, including the TCRC? Speaker 301:07:40Benoit, I'd say the answer is yes to your question there regarding the East Coast potential strike. There's ongoing dialogue with this meanship lines on alternatives and frankly direct with BCOs that are looking for, I'd say, kind of early in any, but some of these tests that I talked about over Lazarillo were specifically designed with the intent of traffic that is going through the canal and in the East Coast today that could this be an opportunity to do something a little more permanent at Lazaro? And I also do believe it presents a potential opportunity at Port St. John. So we'll have to see how that plays out. Speaker 1001:08:25Thank you very much, Jeff. We're good on. Operator01:08:29Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our allotted time for Q and A. I would now like to turn the conference back to Mr. Keith Creel. Speaker 201:08:37Hey, Melissa. Let me close by thanking you for your time. I hope the comments provided some color on this unique network and this unique value creation that we're unlocking. I think back especially now in light of past passing, I think about what we committed to and what we agreed to do. Pat and I combine these networks to enable growth and to create competition and unlock unique value for all stakeholders across the entire supply chain. Speaker 201:09:01That means good paying jobs for our employees. That means great service for our customers. That means real network capacity for our nation to grow, for all three nations to enjoy prosperity and to increase trade together and we're doing exactly that. So we look forward to sharing another chapter in that growth story when we report our Q3 results. And until then, stay safe. Operator01:09:24Thank you, Mr. Peter. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's CPKC 2nd quarter earnings call. Again, thanks so much for joining us everyone and we wish you all a great evening. Goodbye.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallCanadian Pacific Kansas City Q2 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckInterim report Canadian Pacific Kansas City Earnings HeadlinesCanadian Pacific Kansas City (CP) Projected to Post Earnings on WednesdayApril 28 at 1:21 AM | americanbankingnews.comCanadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CP): Among The Best Railroad Stocks To Buy According To BillionairesApril 27 at 6:55 AM | insidermonkey.comWho’s really running AmericaMost Americans have never heard his name… He was instrumental in Trump’s victory. He turned J.D. Vance from a Trump-hater into his vice president. He’s one of the driving forces behind the rise of cryptocurrencies, digital commerce, social media, Big Data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence... In other words, he’s America’s puppet master. April 28, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)Canadian Pacific: 2025 EPS To Grow Double Digits Regardless Of Potential Tariff OutcomesApril 25 at 12:00 PM | seekingalpha.comRaymond James Has Pessimistic Outlook of CP Q3 EarningsApril 25 at 3:11 AM | americanbankingnews.comRoom to Grow: CPKC designates nine Site Ready industrial development locationsApril 24, 2025 | prnewswire.comSee More Canadian Pacific Kansas City Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Canadian Pacific Kansas City? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Canadian Pacific Kansas City and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Canadian Pacific Kansas CityCanadian Pacific Kansas City (NYSE:CP), together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a transcontinental freight railway in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company transports bulk commodities, including grain, coal, potash, fertilizers, and sulphur; merchandise freight, such as forest products, energy, chemicals and plastics, metals, minerals, consumer products, and automotive; and intermodal traffic comprising retail goods in overseas containers. It also provides rail and intermodal transportation services over a network of approximately 20,000 miles serving business centres. The company was formerly known as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited and changed its name to Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited in April 2023. 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There are 11 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Beau, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to CPKC's Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call. The slides accompanying today's call are available at investor. Cpkcr.com. Operator00:00:17All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to introduce Chris De Bruin, Vice President, Capital Markets to begin the conference. Chris, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:39Thank you, Bo. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I want to remind you this presentation contains forward looking information. Actual results may differ materially. The risks, uncertainties and other factors that could influence actual results are described on Slide 2, in the press release and in the MD and A filed with Canadian and U. Speaker 100:01:00S. Regulators. This presentation also contains non GAAP measures outlined on Slide 3. Please note, in addition to our regular quarterly financials, there is supplemental Q2 combined revenue and operating performance data available at investor. Cpkcrdot com, which some of today's discussion will focus on. Speaker 100:01:18With me here today is Keith Creel, our President and Chief Executive Officer Navin Balani, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and John Brooks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. The formal remarks will be followed by Q and A. In the interest of time, we'd appreciate if you limit your questions to 1. It is now my pleasure to introduce our President and CEO, Mr. Keith Creel. Speaker 100:01:41Thanks, Chris, and good afternoon. Listen, before we get into Speaker 200:01:43the results, on behalf of our CPK Safe family, I want to extend our heartfelt prayers and condolences to Pat Oxmier's family and friends. Our family mourns this tragic passing. We extend our deepest condolences to his fiancee, Deanna, his entire family as well as many friends and former colleagues. Pat's vision and leadership played a monumental role in the great history of Kansas City Southern and he helped reshape the railway industry. We've lost a truly remarkable leader and a cherished friend. Speaker 200:02:11All of you knew him as professional and a railroader had nothing but respect and admiration for the material impact he made across so many aspects of our industry and if you had the honor to have enjoyed a friendship with Pat as I did, words will never catch what a class gentleman and human being he was. Pat's legacy lives only to be seen in the work we'll do every day at CPKC. I'm also pleased to be hosting this call in Kansas City at our brand new state of the art U. S. Operations headquarters at Noki Yard. Speaker 200:02:38This facility is just one small example that would have never been possible without Pat's vision and strength as a leader. His contributions as a railroad as a person will never be forgotten. And moving on to the quarter, I'd like to first start by thanking the 20,000 Mr. Allen CPKC family for their efforts in the Q2. As a leader, it's always my honor to represent the results we're going to cover on behalf of this team, which I'm extremely proud of. Speaker 200:03:02In the Q2, the family delivered revenues of 3,800,000,000 dollars up 8%, strong volume growth, an increase of 6%, operating ratio of 61.8%, which is a 280 basis point improvement versus last year and EPS of $1.05 a 27% increase. Certainly extremely pleased with these results. I can tell these numbers that I just walked through do not happen by accident through execution. So on the operating front, I applaud Mark and his operating team for their continued strong operating performance across this network. They delivered significant improvement across a number of our key operating metrics. Speaker 200:03:37Unfortunately, Mark had an unexpected IGRIC procedure he had done yesterday, so he's not with us today. So I'm going to cover his results in his body of work. Average terminals well declined 9% in the quarter, average train speed improved 6%, locomotive productivity up 10% and fuel efficiency improved 2%. All of these results reflect the network that's fluid, it's running well and delivering strong service to our customers as we carry that momentum into the second half. And from a safety perspective, train exits were down 4% and personal injuries an astounding 38% improvement. Speaker 200:04:09I'm extremely proud of the team's continued focus on safety each and every quarter. Commercially, John and his team continue to bring on business that's going to fit our network well, working in close collaboration with our operating and service design team. And the team continues to price the value of the service that this new network uniquely offers. The team is executing on the vision we have when we first proposed putting these networks together and it's leading us to a differentiated outcome. Well, it's been well publicized, the freight environment continues to be challenging. Speaker 200:04:36We're not making excuses. We're leaning into the challenge, recruiting our opportunities that are uniquely enabled by this new network. So in closing, let me say I'm extremely pleased with the first half of the year. I'm even more excited about what the second half holds. We're in a position of strength, return momentum in the second half that we're going to build on. Speaker 200:04:54As I said in January, we're positioned to deliver an exciting year of value creation and that is exactly what this team is delivering. We're uniquely positioned to deliver strong value in 2024 and more importantly for years to come. So that said, John, I'm going to hand it over to you to provide some color on the markets and then Nathan Dean will elaborate on the numbers. Speaker 300:05:11All right. Thank you, Keith, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm extremely pleased with the strong top line growth the team delivered this quarter. This franchise is creating the unique opportunities we've talked about since day 1. Our operations are strong and we're pricing to the value of the differentiated service we are providing our customers. Speaker 300:05:31Now looking at our results on a combined basis, we delivered freight revenue growth of 8% on a 6% increase in RTMs. Sense per RTM was up 2% with strong pricing and a slight tailwind from FX, partially offset by mix. Now taking a closer look at our 2nd quarter revenue performance, I'll speak to an FX adjusted result on a CPKC combined basis. Starting with bulk, grain revenues were up 17% on 15% RTM growth. U. Speaker 300:06:06S. Grain volumes grew 17% over prior year. Our franchise is benefiting from strong shipments of corn to the PNW, Mexico and Alberta along with increased shipments of soybeans and wheat to Mexico, which remains a strong area of synergy growth for CPKC. Canadian grain volumes were up 13% on the quarter as we saw a stronger than expected spring summer sales program emerge as farmers reduce their on farm inventory in preparation of the upcoming harvest. Now looking forward, early indications are that this harvest will be more in line with our 5 year average or if not stronger. Speaker 300:06:51That coupled with our regulated grain pricing of approximately 6.5% has us well positioned in Canadian grain. Now moving on to potash, revenues were up 24% on 11% volume growth. We moved higher volumes of potash with Canpotex to their Portland terminal as we lapped the impact of their ship loader outage back in April of 'twenty three. Now looking forward, potash supply chain is performing very well and export demand is sold out for the second half of the year. We are on pace to set a record all time tonnage with Camptotex this year. Speaker 300:07:29Coal revenue was up 3% on a 2% decline in volume. Lower natural gas prices weakened demand for our U. S. Coal franchise and that weakness was partially offset by more export Canadian coal to Vancouver and Thunder Bay. On the merchandise side, Energy Chemicals and Plastics revenue grew 10% on a 14% volume growth. Speaker 300:07:53The volume growth in the quarter was driven by higher crude as we lap the impact of some outages last year and growth from synergies across just about all of the ECP portfolio, including LPGs, plastics, renewable diesel and refined fuels. We are excited about the wins we've captured in this space as we are connecting markets from Alberta to the Gulf Coast and into Mexico with our single line haul service. Now looking forward to the ongoing ramp up of these synergies, we are set up for a solid second half of 'twenty four in ECP. In the Forest Products area, we were down 1% revenues on a 1% decline in volumes. Forest Products volumes continue to be challenged by a soft macro environment impacting both our paper and lumber products. Speaker 300:08:42However, we are largely offsetting this headwind with synergy growth and extended line haul, shipping more lumber from Canadian producers down to our franchise in Texas and the Gulf markets. Metals, Minerals and Consumer Products revenue was down 3% on a 9% volume decline. Volumes in the quarter were impacted by weakness in frac sand, driven by the lower natural gas prices, but also a labor disruption we had at our Sur Motel steel facility in Mexico. Now looking forward, although we expect the weakness in frac to continue, the labor distraction has ended and we expect Arthur to ramp up production in the back half of the year. In automotive, we produced another record quarter with revenues up 28% on 21% volume growth, an exceptional performance by the team. Speaker 300:09:36Our auto franchise is benefiting from higher longer haul volumes out of Mexico as our closed loop model service solution only continues to ramp up. I'm also pleased to share that our new Dallas auto compound located at our Wiley, Texas Intermodal Terminal opened in late June. This compound is part of our playbook that unlocks an entirely new supply chain model for the OEMs, giving them new competition, service and capacity certainty like they've never had before. Our auto business continues to deliver differentiated growth and we expect a strong performance as we move through the second half of the year. Now on the intermodal side, revenue was down 7% on a 3% volume decline. Speaker 300:10:27Starting with domestic intermodal, volumes were up 3% despite a soft base demand environment. Our MMX or 180, 181 cross border service continues to perform extremely well in what I would consider a very challenging domestic market. Volumes on this service are up 50% since our exit rates at the end of 2023 and we have a strong pipeline of opportunities stacked up to the back half of the year. This includes new wholesale opportunities, new retail opportunities, temp control service operating and new joint line routes into both the Southeast U. S. Speaker 300:11:09And the Ohio Valley markets. Now moving on to the international side, volumes were down 9%, primarily related to timing of the impact of lingering strike uncertainty and the timing of some share shifts in business. With new business ramping up and a solid outlook for demand, we are well positioned across all our ports for the second half of the year. To close, the volumes in the first half came in slightly better than we expected and we're off to a strong start in Q3. While the macro remains challenging in some areas, overall demand has stabilized and more importantly, we continue to have line of sight of strong differentiated growth from synergies, self help initiatives and disciplined pricing. Speaker 300:12:00The operations team is delivering reliable, resilient service to our customers and my team is laser focused on selling into that service and taking advantage of our expansive new network. I'm excited about what we've accomplished so far this year and even more for the opportunities we have ahead of us. So with that, I'll stop and pass it over to Nadine. Well, thanks, John. That's a great report. Speaker 300:12:25So let me start by sharing my enthusiasm for the strong performance for the quarter. Our success is driven by the hard work and dedication of CPKC's railroaders and I'm proud of what the team is accomplishing. Looking at the quarter, CPKC's reported operating ratio was 64.8% and the core adjusted combined operating ratio came in at 61.8%. Earnings per share was $0.97 and core adjusted combined earnings per share was $1.05 up 27%. Similar to what we shared in previous quarters, our combined operating expenses in 2023 illustrate the effects of the acquisition for the 2nd quarter is that the acquisition closed on January 1, 2022. Speaker 300:13:12I will speak to FX adjusted combined operating results in these prepared months. Speaker 200:13:17Now taking a closer look Speaker 300:13:18at our income statement, reported operating expense is provided on Slide 11 and combined operating expense is on Slide 12, where I'll focus my comments. Excluding adjustments, comp and benefits expense was 610,000,000 dollars The year over year decline in comp and benefits was driven by reduced stock based compensation as well as efficiency gains from reduced overtime, improved fluidity and engineering productivity gains. This was partially offset by inflation, volume driven increases from higher GTMs and higher current service costs from our DB pension plan due to a lower discount rate at year end 2020 3. Looking to the rest of 2024, we continue to expect average headcount to be roughly flat on a year over year basis, driving further labor productivity gains as we grow volumes. Fuel expense was $466,000,000 up 9%. Speaker 300:14:15The increase was primarily driven by a $24,000,000 or 4% increase in fuel price, along with volume driven increases from higher GTMs. Increases from price and volume were partially offset by a 2% improvement in fuel efficiency, which resulted in $9,000,000 in savings, another area in order we are seeing network efficiency gains translate directly into margin improvement. Excluding adjustments, material expense was 95,000,000 dollars The decline in the quarter was driven primarily by timing of locomotive and freight car maintenance as activity schedules across the network are aligned. Equipment rents were $82,000,000 down 5% year over year. The decline was driven by reduced car hire payments and receipts along with efficiency gains from improved cycle times and increased network velocity. Speaker 300:15:07Depreciation expense was up 6% resulting from a higher asset base. Excluding adjustments, purchased services and other expense was 581,000,000 dollars Cost of inflation and terminal service costs were partially offset by a year over year decline in capitalistic expense. So overall top line growth in the quarter coupled with strong cost control and execution resulted in a 17% increase in core adjusted combined operating income and a 280 basis point improvement in our core adjusted combined operating ratio to 61.8%. Moving below the line on Slide 13, other income was $40,000,000 driven by higher equity income along with a gain on some debt repurchases in the quarter. Other components of net periodic benefit recovery was $88,000,000 in Q2. Speaker 300:15:59This reflects a lower discount rate compared to 2023 and partially offsetting the headwinds of comp and benefits from current service costs. Net interest expense was $200,000,000 or $195,000,000 excluding the impact of purchase accounting. The decline was driven by a reduced debt balance. Income tax expense was $292,000,000 or $328,000,000 on a core adjusted combined basis. We still expect our CPKC core adjusted expected tax rate to be approximately 25% for the year. Speaker 300:16:32Turning to Slide 14, we are generating strong cash flow and cash provided by operating activities of 1.278 $1,000,000,000 in Q2. Capital investments in safety and growth remain our priority. In this quarter, we reinvested $808,000,000 in line with our expectation to invest approximately $2,750,000,000 in 2024. We continue to make strategic investments in capacity across our network, positioning us to continue efficiently absorbing the growth that the merger has enabled. On the quarter, we generated $526,000,000 in adjusted combined free cash flow and continue to repay debt. Speaker 300:17:13Our leverage ratio was 3.2x and we still expect to reach target leverage in early 2025, at which point we will evaluate shareholder returns with our Board. In review of the quarter, the team delivered another strong volume growth ahead of expectations, along with continued discipline on price and cost control. Synergies are continuing to ramp as the network is performing well. We continue to gain momentum on our expense synergies, improvements in velocity as well as locomotive and car productivity are generating operating savings. We're also gaining procurement savings through consolidating agreements across the company as well as savings in G and A through combining processes and functions. Speaker 300:17:56We're well on track to deliver double digit core adjusted combined earnings growth, growth driven entirely from the business and without any help from shareholder returns. This network is delivering strong and profitable growth and I'm excited for the opportunities we have ahead. With that, let me turn it back to you over to you, Keith. Speaker 200:18:15That's great, Dan. Let's open it up for questions. Operator00:18:19Thank you, Mr. Speaker 300:18:24Creel. Operator00:18:33We go first this afternoon to Chris Wetherbee with Wells Fargo. Speaker 400:18:38Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys, and condolences to the CPKC family and certainly to Pat and his family as well. It will be missed. If I could maybe start a little bit on the synergy side, the revenue synergy side, maybe if we could get a sense of how that's kind of progressing. And as we think about the back half of the year, could we see an acceleration in sort of activity? Speaker 400:19:01I guess, get a sense of kind of what we're thinking about in terms of revenue synergy progress and maybe what we think the exit rate could look like as we get through the end of 'twenty four? Speaker 300:19:11Yes, Chris. So it's John here. Super pleased with progress. We came out of the gates really strong last year and a number of announcements and piled up a pretty good exit rate in the 3.50 range, which we've talked about at the end of 2023. And I mean, maybe just to get to the point, I fully expect we said we'd double that, but I fully expect that we're on a run rate that could get us closer to that $800,000,000 type number as we exit 2024. Speaker 300:19:48And if you think about that, it's really spread pretty evenly across our book. Just to give you a sense, about half of that, I would bump in area of intermodal, so international, domestic, automotive. And then the other half, maybe split pretty evenly between our bulk franchise as we've really seen here this summer, our grain shipments down into Mexico accelerate and then the other half of that being our ECP merchandise business. So I'm quite pleased with where we sit so far here and I expect again a pretty good ramp up as we move through the second half of twenty twenty four. Speaker 400:20:38Great. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Speaker 200:20:41Yes. Thanks, Chris. Operator00:20:45Thank you. We go next now to Walter Spracklin at RBC Capital Markets. Speaker 100:20:49Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. So, John, speaking with you, you spent a bit of your time there on the on your prepared remarks talking on the Dallas Auto Compound opening and some of the opportunity there. Can you talk a little bit about the capacity there? How much you could ramp it? Speaker 100:21:07How quickly it could come on? And if you could frame it quantitatively even better, but just curious to hear what the upside there is on that particular light. Speaker 300:21:18Yes, Walter, I'm really excited about this one. This is an opportunity similar to the playbook in Canada, right? We identified the land available down in Wiley and aggressively got after that opportunity. In terms of capacity, we're looking at a facility that will do, let's say, 160,000 to 180,000 VINs annually. We utilized about 35 acres or so there. Speaker 300:21:52Right now, we've got 3 OEMs that are signed on and actively shipping into the facility. My sense is those 3 probably at full run rate, Walter, get us to 75% capacity roughly in that neighborhood. And then we've got 2 or 3 fish on the line that I'm pretty excited about that I could see coming on maybe even towards the end of this year, but certainly in the 2025. And as you look to the future, the great thing about that location is it's expandable. We can add some capacity there. Speaker 300:22:38And it's really going to provide a pretty unique solution. I also think as you see the production grow in the Eastern U. S. With connections to the NS and CSX, that becomes a pretty big opportunity for the future. Speaker 200:22:53Yes. I would just add to that, that entire opportunity as well as we execute is well beyond our Investor Day guidance and wasn't in the base plan. You've got 430 Acres left Gloucester to expand into. So we have the capacity, we have the land. I think we're going to have the business opportunities. Speaker 200:23:11We've got great partners with CSX and with NS to reach all their markets and feed traffic into that Dallas market and then down to Mexico. So I think it complements uniquely this network that we're optimized. Speaker 500:23:25If anyone is going to be Speaker 300:23:25in Dallas in September, we're going to be doing a tour there. Speaker 200:23:28Yes, we're happy to show that facility off in September. Speaker 500:23:33All right. Thank you Speaker 100:23:34very much. Appreciate the time. Speaker 300:23:36Thanks, Walter. Operator00:23:38Thank you. We go next now to Fadi Chamoun at BMO Capital Markets. Speaker 500:23:44Yes. Good. Thanks for taking my question. Keith, maybe you can give us an update and I wanted to ask you, John, like typically your second half does end up being a little bit stronger than the first half from a volume perspective, like just typical seasonality, I guess. But how are you seeing some of the diversion issues that you have experienced in the Q2 and you're experiencing now? Speaker 500:24:15Is it stabilizing? Do you think that there's potential for more kind of headwind on that front as we look into in the 3rd Q4? Speaker 300:24:26Fady, you cut out on the question to Keith. Can you just repeat it, please? Yes, the first part. Speaker 500:24:33The first part is just about an update on the labor situation, if you can just give us your little thoughts on that. Speaker 200:24:42Okay. Well, as we all know, we've been trying our dead level best to make sure we keep our customers updated and all key stakeholders. The CRIB took hold of a question that the Minister of Labor challenged relative to potential threat to Canadian safety. We're waiting for a ruling on that question. They've committed to have that ruling come out by August 9. Speaker 200:25:07What we've asked for in return is essentially a little bit of time for our customers to plan so they can railroads in the nation being shut down. That said, the parties although we stay at the table, we're far apart. I'm just being transparent and honest. It's going to be a challenge. We've offered to enter to binding arbitration given we understand the potential damage to the Canadian economy. Speaker 200:25:44We understand the damage and the pain and suffering on our employees even those that might be out on strike as well as those that aren't out on strike. So it's not a good outcome for anyone. But that said, at this point, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. It's most probable that we'll have a work stoppage both railroads. My guess is best guess, they release the parties by the night that would put a word stoppage probably sometime the end of the month is what I would be guessing at and planning for. Speaker 200:26:15But again, we won't know until that really comes out Speaker 300:26:17to the CRB at or on Speaker 200:26:20the later than August 9th based on our commitment. Yes. Speaker 300:26:25And Fady, a few things here I would say. Certainly, I feel better about where I thought I was going to be at this point of the year and I do have quite a bit of optimism around the run rate if you think about the back half of the year. Now that being said, Speaker 200:26:43I'll tell you, we still got to as Keith just spoke to, we Speaker 300:26:46got to get through what is likely going to be a strike that brings a certain level of uncertainty. Of course, we've got an election year. We've got a macro environment that is still not great in some areas. So that being said, maybe the counterbalance to that is, as I said, I think we're shaping up for a pretty good grain season. And we are really well positioned in the Western Corridor in terms of our capacity and being able to provide the service our grain shippers need in that region. Speaker 300:27:22In addition, I'm super excited about what we've been able to do in the U. S. And bringing Mexico into our portfolio of destination. So I definitely see the bulks accelerating, I think, in a pretty sizable way as we move through the back half of the year. We're going to keep slogging along on the domestic intermodal front. Speaker 300:27:46I'm pleased with the growth, but a tough market out there. There's no doubt about it. So we'll see how that unfolds. I'm excited about some things we have ramping up in that business unit. And frankly, some of those merchandise areas kind of present a little bit of a mix headwind in some of those opportunities. Speaker 300:28:11As you know, that carload area is pretty strong sense for RTM, but that's an area where in the forest products and steel and some of those areas where we're definitely not counting on a rebound the back half of the year. So hopefully that's a little bit more color. Speaker 200:28:28Yes, I think, Fady, there's one more thing I think it's important that everyone takes away. Our guidance is assuming the work stoppage. So unless it's one of long duration, when I say long more than 2 weeks, we're anticipating that, we're planning for that and it's not going to impact our guidance. Once we get beyond that, I think we'll be in a very good position to have a better more responsible lot of sites at the end of the year. We'll see how the labor situation plays out. Speaker 200:28:52We'll have a good picture of grain, I think by then and then we'll look at if we need to change in our outlook. Speaker 500:28:59Thank you. Appreciate it. Operator00:29:03Thank you. We go next now to Steve Hansen with Raymond James. Speaker 600:29:09Yes, good afternoon guys. Speaker 700:29:10Thanks for the time. Look, if I'm listening to Speaker 400:29:12your recap this evening, it's almost like you weren't operating in the Western Corridor. 1 of your peers talked about a lot of congestion problems in the West and it raises a lot of questions about ultimate capacity at West here and how that service serviceable into the key corridors or the key port terminals out here. I mean, how do you feel that you're able to escape the congestion issues that the other faced? And do you feel like the capacity into the key jurisdiction here is still sufficient for you? Any comments around that would be super helpful. Speaker 200:29:43Yes, Steve, let me focus our comments on CPKC and I've said this all along, you can't oversubscribe your network, you've got to understand your capacity, you've got to understand your limitations and you sell to the strength of your franchise. You don't oversell it, you don't oversubscribe it, you got to have the right number of locomotives, right number of cars, right number of crews, you got to understand where the business is coming on and at our railroad, we focus intently in a very disciplined fashion and making sure that we right size our assets and we sell to that capacity. That's a discipline. If you let your aspirations get ahead of your capacities then ultimately I know that we would get in trouble. And as an operating CEO, I'm intently focused on that routinely. Speaker 200:30:28It's a discipline that's woven into our DNA and as or anyone that I train and work with has anything to do with this railroad, that's the way CPKC will be running Canada, U. S. And Mexico. It's the recipe for truly running a true precision scheduled railroad that provides great service, controls cost, allows earned margins and allows it to be sustainable for your customer because they're making their decisions based on our ability to keep our word and do what we say we're going to do. And the last thing I want to do is destroy that credibility because they have very short Speaker 600:31:05Very helpful. Thanks. Operator00:31:10Thank you. We go next now to Tom Wadewitz with UBS. Speaker 400:31:16Yes, good afternoon. Keith, I wanted to ask you how you think about or John, how you think about capacity of some of the services you have? And also maybe how we think about the potential for 2025 to be a strong margin expansion year? I guess I think of just one example, but 180, 181 that you probably still have good amount of capacity. So you see some growth, it should be pretty strong incremental margins. Speaker 400:31:44You've had some noise this year kind of, I guess, anticipating the labor issue and so forth. So I just wonder if you have kind of a broad thought that potentially set up for a pretty strong margin expansion here next year and how you think about available capacity on some of the services you have? Thank you. Speaker 200:32:01You. We're well positioned from a capacity standpoint, Tom. It's a great question. 180, 181 is a perfect example. We're eating some margin because we've got that service out there. Speaker 200:32:11But to John's point, it's up 50% here since the beginning of the year. That train is running at half train length. So we still have additional capacity to sell into and the margins only improve once you get the base cost covered in that train start. So again all across this network, all these lanes that we're selling, we said this to the SDV and I'll say it again and again and again, we're building this network out to match these synergies so that we can onboard this business, not deteriorate our service offering, not deteriorate our car cycle times, our locomotive productivity, all those things that allow us to run a successful business to be able to continue to pour records amount of capital into this network so they can grow in a responsible way that rewards the shareholder as well as provides the customer the reliable service they need. That's the recipe. Speaker 200:32:57It's not rocket science. The issue is having the discipline to execute. And if you do that, you're going to continue to put yourself in a position of success that quite frankly has proven to be very unique in this industry. Speaker 400:33:12Do you think the available capacity is it's fair to think it's broader than that particular service that you would have it across kind of multiple areas in the network? Speaker 200:33:23I would say we're not capacity constrained in any lane. That's probably the best way to say it. And think about the capital that we're spending in line with our STV submission, we said we're going to spend about $275,000,000 We're well on our way. We've got 7, 8 side exam. We've got the bridge of Laredo that's about to be completed. Speaker 200:33:41I was just looking at the progress of it a couple of hours ago. It will be done, it will be online. We've got 6 or 7 capital projects we did not even plan that we added into the capital envelope in Mexico based on the learnings of last year when we put that task force down there that haven't came online yet. So they're at what I would call critical capacity points. Once that capacity comes online, you're going to see locomotives move faster, you're going to see cars move faster, you're going to see costs come down and guess what, you're going to create capacity for more growth. Speaker 200:34:11So again, this network is not capacity constrained. It's our job to make sure that we don't get in that position as long as our customers work closely with us, they give us good forecast. Now I'm not going to say that we can go back to March of this year and we had a 40% increase of business on the West Coast of Vancouver and it oversubscribed that supports, it actually did. We took decisions, we took steps responsibly responding to that in March to make sure we weren't oversubscribed. We allow contracts clauses to be relaxed, so the traffic could be diverted, so that our customers could still continue to meet their customers' expectations. Speaker 200:34:48We also allowed contracts shifting to occur early in anticipation of the strike because we knew at that time we thought the strike was going to happen in May and it was our responsibility to make sure we protected our capacity so that we could deliver for our customers and bounce back that strike in very good fashion and that's exactly the rhythm and the discipline that we've applied as we go forward. Whether the strike happens in August, September, October, God help us, it doesn't. We need to get this uncertainty over. But this railroad is going to deal with what we can deal with, control what you can control and you're going to have a very differentiated outcome if you do that. Speaker 300:35:27And Tom, let me just add, we laid out a year ago guidance for 2024 to 20 28 of high single digit revenue growth. And we're right on track for that in year 1, and we have plenty of capacity to support that revenue growth and we're going to bring it on at a low incremental cost. Speaker 400:35:47Great. Thank you for the time. Speaker 700:35:50Thank you, Tom. Operator00:35:53We'll go next now to Scott Group with Wolfe Research. Speaker 100:35:57Hey, thanks. Good afternoon. And I echo the condolences on Pat from earlier. Nadeem, at the beginning of the year, you talked about an inflation sort of catch up. Can you just give us an update on how that's playing out and same store price trends? Speaker 100:36:15And then maybe just John, just some thoughts like the RTM carload spread is just so wide right now. I think it was like 10 points in the 2nd quarter, similar spread in the 3rd quarter. Is this the right way to think about the business sort of going forward with the synergies? Or is there something sort of unusual just given commodity dynamic? How should we think about this? Speaker 100:36:39What's the right spread, I guess, going forward? Speaker 300:36:43Scott, you're right on. I mean, we highlighted that there's going to be an opportunity to have some pricing catch up just the way the contracts the nature of the contracts and just the way that cost inflation has surged so much in the previous, call it, 18 months, 22 months and 24 months. So we're starting to see on the cost side inflation moderate kind of in that mid-3s, 3.5% kind of level. We're seeing the strength of our service being rewarded in the marketplace and we're seeing kind of the same store pricing in that north of 5. So that spread of pricing versus inflation is widening. Speaker 300:37:26And I don't see that changing. In fact, I see that accelerating to an extent more so because I see inflation moderating further. I mean, we've seen that across the board of whether that's on the material side. Labor has been a bit higher. But again, that's going to moderate over the next year. Speaker 300:37:45And so I think we're going to see the benefits of strong pricing and lower inflation. I think that's going to be helpful to our margin story. And Scott on the RTM and carloads question, Speaker 200:37:58I mean RTM to us what we get paid for, they're the most important metric even more so with this new expanded link to follow network. So what you're seeing in the spreads today is accentuated or exaggerated because we haven't yet lapped that loss of the short haul low profit business that left us, I guess, it was Q4 of last year. Order of magnitude, that's 170,000 carloads. So if you get caught up in the carloads, you're going to miss the power of what's really occurring. Every carload that we have with converting lead to fall, whether it's 30% longer, 40%, 50%, your models aren't going to catch it. Speaker 200:38:33So again, RTM should be the Holy Grail when it comes to this railroad, not carloads. Speaker 100:38:41Makes sense. And just so I understand your point, Nadim, even if even with the new labor deal coming, you still feel good about labor inflation, overall inflation slowing? Speaker 300:38:54I do. I do. I think we've been accruing at what we anticipate a fair ruling and a fair kind of win win situation between us and labor. And so I'm not concerned about that. I mean, on near term, we're going to have a bit of a headwind. Speaker 300:39:10We had a significant casualty costs that we faced in July that we're going to feel in the Q3. That being said, there's still 2 months left in the quarter and we're going to keep them on the rail and we can help mitigate some of those costs. And I think we've seen some additional stock based comp costs that we're going to feel in Q3 year over year. Outside of that, the way the network is running and the operating leverage that I see in front of us, I think, it more than offsets some of those costs. And I think we're going to have a very strong backup half of the year. Speaker 300:39:48So perhaps not sequential improvement in the OR in Q3 because of some of those headwinds I just mentioned. But I think in Q4, we're set up to have a record operating ratio for CPKC, and I think it's going to be a very strong finish to the year, and it's going to set us up for a 2025 that I think could be a very powerful earnings model. And Scott, just maybe just want to comment on the carloads and RTMs, like just to give you an example, like right now, I think Q2, our average length of haul was up about 6%. But if you look at our domestic intermodal, it was up over double digits on average length of haul. And again, that's just indicative of what exactly Keith described on that shift in business. Speaker 300:40:40And frankly, as I look out to the second half of the year, as I see some strength in, I think, our inter national franchise, there's a really good chance we can play catch up and kind of you'll start to see that deviation come closer together as we move through Q4. Speaker 100:41:03Very helpful guys. Thank you. Speaker 500:41:06Yes. Thank you, Scott. Operator00:41:10We'll go next now to Brandon Oglenski at Barclays. Speaker 200:41:16Thanks for taking the question and again condolences to Pat and family and friends. Keith or maybe John, I guess when you speak about the Laredo bridge expansion, maybe we're overemphasizing how much capacity that adds to the system. But how do you approach that with a balanced outlook for growth with customers, but also balancing the need to keep consistent service? And where do you think we're going to see the results from that expansion most immediately in 2025? You're going to see the results to me would be about train speed and train velocity. Speaker 200:41:52It's going to be singles and doubles. There's not going to be any big home runs. If you think about it today, you're running 4 hour windows. So it's suboptimal when it comes to trains. You've got a number of trains that are going to be in queue, could be in queue for an hour, could be in queue for 4 hours before it gets changed. Speaker 200:42:09All that goes away. The queue disappears. We get to make needs on the bridge. We'll work well with UP. UP is going to work well with us. Speaker 200:42:17It's going to be a smooth transition. We're working out the details now for UP to have a crossover coming off that second bridge. So again, we're both co located on the bridge. We both will do better. The velocity is going to improve and our assets are going to turn faster. Speaker 200:42:32So again, it will be baked into the metrics that are all beating home runs, but it makes a meaningful difference in today's operation and most especially in tomorrow's growth. Speaker 300:42:42And Brandon, it's a differentiator in the marketplace. It is what my team is using to sell to the customers and expanding down in Mexico and really feeding that cross border service. It's about security. It's about service. It's about capacity. Speaker 300:42:59And the second bridge, honestly, just adds to that capability that differentiates us against other routes in and out of Mexico. And that's a strong selling point to our customers. Speaker 100:43:17Thank you, both. Operator00:43:21We'll go next now to Jon Chappell at Evercore ISI. Speaker 700:43:27Thank you. Kind of staying with that theme, John, we're getting a lot of, I think, concern or maybe even excitement depending on who you are on potential tariffs and what that means, especially in New Mexico. What are your customers telling you about potentially front end loading or being more proactive as it relates to imports either the West Coast to Canada or to Mexico? And then also where does the service stand right now? I know there were some maybe hiccups at the initial stages of the integration. Speaker 700:43:54I know Mark and his team made a lot of headwinds or a whole lot of progress there. Where is the service down on Mexico if there is a surge in the coming months? Speaker 200:44:05Service has never been better. Over to you, John. Yes. Speaker 300:44:07Honestly, John, we just ran a number of tough loads, imports through Lazaro up into the Houston market. I think they're on our rails for 3.5 days. That excludes time at the port in that really good customer experience. I would say it's been up to your point, it's been a slug. It's been educating around what importexport freight can look like through Mexico. Speaker 300:44:37So it's been a pretty big learning curve with the customers, but we're starting to produce some results. And I'll just give you an example, and you've probably seen some of this, but we've actually had 5 new service calls recently announced at Lazaro, a couple of new mare services, O and E, MSC, a CMA. And I think what we're seeing is we're building confidence. The service level is, as Keith said, is strong and we're demonstrating that. And frankly, there's good demand intra Mexico. Speaker 300:45:16But that intra Mexico demand brings with it the opportunity for space on those boats to then flourish and provide capacity for cross border. And you're right, we certainly have some pending labor issues that could take place on the East Coast and combined with these new services that we think it sets us up well for continuing to grow that Lazaro opportunity in the back half of this year and into 2025. Speaker 700:45:50Thanks, John. Operator00:45:56We'll go next now to Ken Hoexter at Bank of family. Speaker 700:46:00I've known Pat for over family. I've known Pat for over 20 years and always brought definitely smiles to the room. But just to clarify, Nadim, on your OR improvement, I guess you're not looking for OR improvement in the Q3 and I think you said significant improvement. Is that like maybe 300 plus basis points to get to sub-sixty in the 4th quarter to get to your double digit earnings? Does that sound right? Speaker 700:46:27And then is there a clarification on the level of stock based comp return that comes back? And then lastly, just a quick one for John. It looks like the grain crop, I think you've got an average crop built in. It looks like we've got a decent one shaping up. Any thoughts on the size, scale of the market at this point? Speaker 300:46:45That's it, Ken. Just sequentially, I don't see necessarily improvements in the OR just given, like I said, some derailment costs in July and some additional stock based comp in this quarter relative to a year ago and higher versus Q2. As far as Q4, we had a very strong Q4 operating ratio in 2023 and that's a year over year improvement in the OR Q4 2024 versus 2023, which puts you at a very good operating ratio? Speaker 800:47:20Yes, Ken. Speaker 300:47:23Being a grain guy, it's never made until it's in the bin, but we are pretty optimistic in Canada. And I think what we're particularly optimistic about is if you think about last year's crop and even going back to the 2021, 2022 drought crop, our growing territory felt more of the effects of that. And as we sit here today, we certainly see significant improvement in the CPKC growing territory in southern part of the provinces. In terms of projections, we've kind of settled in in our mind and our modeling at about a 73,000,000 metric ton or so. But customers are talking about possibly 75000000 to 78000000 metric ton type crop. Speaker 300:48:19So we'll see. We got a little bit time left to go. And but certainly optimistic that it could be a strong rainfall. Speaker 700:48:31Great. Thanks for the thoughts and time. Appreciate it. Speaker 300:48:33Yes. Thanks, Ken. Operator00:48:37We'll go next now to Brian Ossenbeck at JPMorgan. Speaker 600:48:43Hey, afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe Nadeem, just to follow-up on the OR commentary. I mean, that seems pretty reasonable that it would deteriorate if you're expecting a labor disruption here in the quarter. So I just wanted to clarify that or maybe the derailment is a bit bigger Speaker 300:49:01than we thought. Speaker 600:49:02And then just for John, if you can give us some context around the end markets that are potentially affected by the peso. We've seen a pretty big swing post elections probably going to stay a little bit more volatile in the coming quarters. So does that impact on those calls if Lazaro be able to offset that with other maybe cost improvements or maybe price it on a dollar basis? Like how do you work through that volatility and what are the customers looking for? Speaker 300:49:31Well, Brian, honestly, I don't know if we felt a whole lot of effect at this point or at least I can differentiate what would be just sort of broader macro softness in some of the areas in and out of Mexico, that Carlo business, particularly like some of our steel business down in that area. I honestly because we don't have a what I would consider regular cross border importexport business at this point in Lazaro. I haven't really felt much on that. And frankly, I would say just the opposite to customers, the steam ship lines we're working with because of the strength with Intermexico that we're seeing right now have actually been pretty excited about what the cross border opportunity could present. I don't know if that's just forward thinking, Brian, in terms of expectations on the peso to moderate some or not. Speaker 300:50:40But nothing I can really call out to you right now that has materially impacted our cross border flows. And Brian, just reiterate on the OR, yes, we had near term additional costs associated with some casualty, that is going to be a step up in costs in the quarter. And then, yes, I mean, reasonably, we think we're going to have a labor disruption and that's going to have an impact on the OR. So I think from our perspective, I think it's responsible to highlight the fact that there's going to be costs to save what we think is going to occur. You're sure Pete mentioned that maybe end of August, that's a likely event. Speaker 300:51:20And so factoring that into what we think is going to be our margins in Q3 is responsible. You're going to get me in trouble with Tony Hatch for talking about the OR so much. Speaker 600:51:33Okay. Thanks very much. Speaker 300:51:35Thank you. Speaker 700:51:38We'll go next now to Kevin Chiang at CIBC. Hey, thanks for taking my question and good afternoon everyone. I'm just wondering with FMC halting this Gemini alliance, does that have any near or medium term implications in terms of some of the growth you envisioned either later this year or into 2025? Speaker 300:51:59Yes. It's a really good question, Kevin. You know the since frankly since COVID, the international business unit is the volatility in some of those freights and port flows, as Keith spoke to earlier that we experienced in March, April, has presented more challenges. And I can tell you we are strategically as much as we say very much into picking our partners and how we align rethinking in a lot of areas, how we think about that international space. Certainly, Hapag is one of our largest customers and most trusted partners. Speaker 300:52:39We also have a significant business with Maersk. So I would tell you, generally speaking, I'm excited about it. I think it presents opportunities from us for us coast to coast, both Vancouver and in Port of St. John. And certainly, then with APM Terminals operating down at Lazaro and frankly Maersk announcing 2 day services or actually a new service and revised service where they're calling on Lazaro ahead of Manzanillo, I think presents a really good opportunity for us. Speaker 300:53:16Now we'll see that it's not all done yet. I know they're working through a lot to get that completed. But if in fact that does what we think it could, it could present a certainly a good opportunity in the international space in 2025. Speaker 700:53:33That's great. Thank you for taking my question. Operator00:53:40We'll go next now to Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Speaker 800:53:45Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the question. I apologize if this is asked earlier, but it's looking at the most recent weekly kind of RTM data, it does look like you're standing apart from maybe some of your peers as of late. So just curious if you're seeing anything kind of specific maybe having to do with some near term dynamics, fires, strikes, the like. Just kind of curious who does seem to stand out a little bit or does this have to do with maybe a big jump in Mexico? Speaker 800:54:16But maybe if anything you can speak to some of the early 3Q performance on the RTM front? Thank you. Speaker 300:54:25Yes. I mean, we are lapping the port strike from a year ago. That's been beneficial. But certainly, I mean, we're seeing strength across the board. And what have been some macro challenges, if you think about domestic intermodal, for example, that's turned into a positive. Speaker 300:54:41We're starting to see confidence in the new grain crop. So grain is strong year over year. So I think across the board, I think we're up almost 14% RTMs quarter to date. Now that's going to slow a little bit as we lap this strike benefit year over year or strike comp. But I think we're still set up for a very strong Q3 and back half of the year. Speaker 300:55:11So I agree with you, we are kind of setting ourselves apart from some of our peers. If you think about this transaction and what it provided, we kind of did things a little bit backwards. We saw the benefits of synergies on the front end in an environment where the macro was weak. Now we're going to continue to see the synergies ramp up. John talked about the exit rate closer to $800,000,000 on the top line. Speaker 300:55:38But now we're also starting to see the base business that was weak in the last year and a half start to rebound. So Canadian grain is a big part of our franchise. We're starting to see that recover. On the intermodal side, we're starting to see the benefits of our domestic franchise and some of our market share wins, and we're starting to see the macro improve. So that's going to start being a tailwind. Speaker 300:56:00So some of the base business, and I can go on with coal and potash, is starting to recover. And so as that base comes on with synergies, we're seeing kind of that double effect of outsized growth that we talked about at our Investor Day last year. And I think that is going to create a lot of operating leverage and allow us to get that growth to the bottom line. That's why we're so excited about 2025 and beyond. Speaker 800:56:28Got it. So you wouldn't necessarily call out any kind of short term dynamics that you're seeing in the last couple of weeks because of some kind of outside event, so to speak, is this kind of you're running the playbook as you outlined? Speaker 300:56:43Yes. A little bit of the comps year over year, easy comps from the strike that occurred a year ago at West Coast Sports in Canada, the benefit. But outside of that, no. Speaker 800:56:55Okay. Really appreciate the time. Thanks, guys. Speaker 300:56:58Thanks, Stephanie. Operator00:57:02We'll next now to Cherilyn Radbourne of TD Cowen. Speaker 900:57:08Thanks very much. Good afternoon. Thanks for squeezing me in. John, I was just hoping that we could dig in a little bit more on the exit run rate on the revenue synergies, which sound like it could be up to $100,000,000 higher than originally expected. Could you talk about where you're seeing that outperformance from an end market perspective and whether that is evenly balanced as synergies overall? Speaker 300:57:36Yes, Cherilyn. So a couple of things. When we originally built this 2, 3 years ago, like the world autos was an area initially we thought would be a longer autos was an area initially we thought would be a longer term story, but actually is with our Wiley compound and some of the opportunities out in Mexico has actually pulled ahead to be an early story. As you think about the intermodal business, and I'm going to say largely domestic intermodal and autos, that's making up roughly, I'm going to say about half slightly below half of the synergies. And then the other half is split between our bulk in our merchandise ECP franchises. Speaker 300:58:32Now an area I'll call out that we didn't expect to be quite as strong at this point with some of our grain into Mexico. But I'll give you an example. This month in July here, we've run, I think, 15 trains between corn, wheat, soybeans off of our traditional legacy CP franchise, whether it be Southern Canada, North Dakota, Minnesota, down into Mexico. I think the prior month was 9, the prior month of that was 6, if my memory calls. So we're seeing a nice ramp up in that Bolt franchise that maybe coming on a little stronger than I initially had anticipated. Speaker 300:59:20I hope that helps. Speaker 900:59:22That's perfect. Thank you. Operator00:59:29Thank you. We go next now to Kanar Gupta at Scotia Capital. Speaker 100:59:34Thanks, Amy. Good afternoon. Thanks for squeezing me in. John, I think you alluded to earlier on the call about some international intermodal shifts. There was some market share shift as well as some new wins. Speaker 100:59:47Can you please elaborate? And then, Nadim, I think you mentioned about some cost impact in Q3. Any early sense on the magnitude of those 2 items, casualty and stock based pharma? Thanks. Speaker 300:59:59Yes. Karam, just on the share piece, just call it Speaker 201:00:03like it is. Speaker 301:00:04We shifted Costco partially out of our franchise at Vancouver and we brought on a corresponding piece of O and E Business. And again, this goes back to what I was talking around, really rightsizing our partners at the Port of Vancouver and also with an eye to what these partners can do with us across our entire franchise. So St. John, Lazaro and as we kind of rework this book, there might be more to come in how we do that. But rest assured, we're high grading the overall franchise value of the book with those shifts and doing it with an eye towards using our entire network now that we have the leverage of CPKC. Speaker 301:01:02And Konark, just on the stock based comp, I mean, as you know, we mark to market each month. So that amount is still to be determined. We'll see what occurs on September 30 when the quarter ends. And on the casualty side, we had one incident alone that was in July earlier this month that was in the neighborhood of $45,000,000 $50,000,000 worth of costs. So that's why I highlight just how this is going to be a headwind. Speaker 301:01:35And so like I said, there's an opportunity to maybe avoid costs in the remaining part of the quarter. That's our goal and intent to keep them on the rails. But just given this cost occurred, I wanted to make sure I highlighted it. Thank you. You're welcome. Operator01:01:58We'll go next now to Ravi Shanker at Morgan Stanley. Speaker 401:02:03Thanks, enough everyone. And our thoughts are also at the CPC company as well. Just kind of on that point, and thank you for the size of those 2 items. If I can ask you as well, you said there are some strike related cost items in the guidance or in the OR walk as well. Is that purely kind of a cost thing? Speaker 401:02:22Or are you also trying to quantify any diversion of volumes away that you're seeing right now and to come? And also on that diversion, is that something that snaps back right after you have resolution? Or does that take longer like it was last year with the port strikes or how do you see that playing out? Speaker 301:02:41No. So we've already faced some revenue headwinds in May before the labor disruption was delayed, if you will. I'm not factoring necessarily into the commentary about an OR sequential headwind related to that. So anything tied to revenues, I think it's going to be a delayed revenue, if anything. So I think it's a cost element. Speaker 301:03:09I think we're going to start we will see the network be brought to a halt and then to ramp back up, it takes some costs, it takes time. You have these inefficiencies over a period of whatever the 72 hour notice and then whatever period that the company is out. So that's how I would highlight the cost headwind associated with the strike. And Matt, can you put a number to it to make Dean's point? Domestic intermodal, right, can be trucked and certainly we'll face some of that. Speaker 301:03:47But the rest is kind of, as he said, delayed and it'll push volume certainly into Q4 and likely into Q1 of next year, depending on how long the stoppage would be. And the uniqueness of this time is that we've got both railroads, right? That creates a very different scenario than we faced over the last 20 years. And so it puts a different pressure on the supply chain and then it has a different dynamic as far as the recovery for the supply chain as per Canada as a whole post labor disruption. Speaker 401:04:28Understood. Thank you. Speaker 301:04:30Thanks, Ravi. Operator01:04:34And we'll go next now to Ben Nolan with Stifel. Speaker 601:04:38Thanks. I appreciate you guys getting in. I wanted to go Speaker 501:04:41back a little bit to pricing. Speaker 601:04:43I know that it has and you alluded to this a little bit ago, but there were still some legacy contracts pre merger that were set to be repriced and I think you're doing Speaker 301:04:58some of that in the Q3. Curious if all of that Speaker 601:04:58has been worked through, if there might be a little bit more juice to squeeze Speaker 301:05:03on some of those contracts? You know what, we are getting into the late innings of the base book. There's probably one big one out there that remains. But for the most part, we have worked through just timing wise, they didn't have a lot of multi year contracts. Most of them were annual. Speaker 301:05:24We've been at this now going on close to a year and a half or whatever since April of 'twenty three. So we've rolled a lot of that over now is the direct answer. Speaker 601:05:37All right. Speaker 501:05:37Thank you. Speaker 301:05:39Yes. Operator01:05:42And we'll go next now to Benoit Poirier of Desjardins Capital Markets. Speaker 1001:05:47Yes. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Could we maybe cut back on the overall labor issues and whether you believe it put Canada reputation at risk? And do you feel that there's a lot of business on the sidelines that could come back in line of labor resolution? Speaker 1001:06:06And also, if we look in the U. S, there's the port workers, the contract with the ILA port workers that is set to expire in September 2024. And I was just curious to see whether you see any potential benefits in light of positive cargo diversion? Thank you. Speaker 201:06:27And then I'll take the reputational damage. It's undeniably present. You think about what Canada is going through the 4th strike last year, how long that lasted and how much pain and suffering that caused for customers, how much credibility impact, some of that traffic is not came back to the West Coast. So undeniably, fast forward to this, you have both railroad shutdown. At some point, customers as much as they need our products in Canada, they're going to get labor unrest fatigue. Speaker 201:06:59So we got to get beyond this. I don't have a magic bullet for this. I don't know what the secret answer is. All we can do is continue to be at the table. We had figured out how to negotiate successfully with every other collective agreement we have in Canada. Speaker 201:07:13This is the only group TCRC that we just can't get there. So we're going to not give up, remain cautiously optimistic, but we're not going to do a bad deal either. I'm not going to punish this company and let this company suffer because we don't have the discipline to say no and do what's in the best long term interest for all employees that's fair across all employees, including the TCRC? Speaker 301:07:40Benoit, I'd say the answer is yes to your question there regarding the East Coast potential strike. There's ongoing dialogue with this meanship lines on alternatives and frankly direct with BCOs that are looking for, I'd say, kind of early in any, but some of these tests that I talked about over Lazarillo were specifically designed with the intent of traffic that is going through the canal and in the East Coast today that could this be an opportunity to do something a little more permanent at Lazaro? And I also do believe it presents a potential opportunity at Port St. John. So we'll have to see how that plays out. Speaker 1001:08:25Thank you very much, Jeff. We're good on. Operator01:08:29Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our allotted time for Q and A. I would now like to turn the conference back to Mr. Keith Creel. Speaker 201:08:37Hey, Melissa. Let me close by thanking you for your time. I hope the comments provided some color on this unique network and this unique value creation that we're unlocking. I think back especially now in light of past passing, I think about what we committed to and what we agreed to do. Pat and I combine these networks to enable growth and to create competition and unlock unique value for all stakeholders across the entire supply chain. Speaker 201:09:01That means good paying jobs for our employees. That means great service for our customers. That means real network capacity for our nation to grow, for all three nations to enjoy prosperity and to increase trade together and we're doing exactly that. So we look forward to sharing another chapter in that growth story when we report our Q3 results. And until then, stay safe. Operator01:09:24Thank you, Mr. Peter. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's CPKC 2nd quarter earnings call. Again, thanks so much for joining us everyone and we wish you all a great evening. Goodbye.Read morePowered by