SmartMoney Magazine
Five Transportation Stocks Ready to Roll
By Reshma Kapadia and Russell Pearlman |Published: May 28, 2008
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LAST YEAR WAS one of the worst periods for transportation companies in years. With consumers spooked by credit woes and rising energy prices, freight volume dropped for the first time since 2001. This year promises more of the same, particularly if the U.S. gets hammered by a recession. But don’t tell Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which transports enough grain to supply 900 million people with a year’s worth of bread and enough coal to power one out of every 10 homes. The nation’s second-largest railroad logged its second-busiest year ever last year, hauling in record revenue and cash flow. This year the outlook is for more of the same.
Trains, trucks and ships might not seem like natural places to put your money when the daily headlines shout recession. After all, they are the engines of economic activity, moving everything from corn and coal to iPods and socks. But a handful of transportation companies are poised to ride out the domestic doldrums. After years of hard work to become more efficient, these companies are lean, mean and flexible enough to reduce costs when demand slips. The best-positioned have another weapon: pricing power. Companies like Burlington Northern and United Parcel Service benefit from limited competition and high barriers to entry. No one is going to build a new railroad or re-create a global shipping network overnight. And with railroads still operating near full capacity, it’s easier to implement price increases — 6 percent last year alone. "If a shipper wants an extra train, it’s going to cost them," says Longbow Research transportation analyst Lee Klaskow. No wonder long-term investors like Warren Buffett have been buying stocks such as Burlington Northern.
Even in a slowing economy, moving goods is a big business. Trucks and railroads combined bring in about $700 billion a year in revenue, and increasing world trade means that figure should continue to grow. As a group, transportation stocks typically hit the brakes before other industries, and this slowdown is no exception. Freight shipments started slowing in late 2006. The good news is that the sector often emerges from the doldrums before other companies. Jon Langenfeld, who covers transportation at Robert W. Baird, says these freight recessions typically last about six to eight quarters. If the pattern holds, this one could be nearing an end. Meanwhile, overseas economies are picking up the slack. The rest of the world still needs many of the goods produced here, and someone has to move them. Indeed, research firm Global Insights expects the value of traded goods to rise to $15 trillion this year, from $13 trillion in 2007.
For more SmartMoney Magazine features, turn to the June issue.That doesn’t mean it’s smooth sailing for every company that moves things around. High oil prices, for example, help railroads but hurt many trucking companies, which are far less fuel efficient. A deep recession that significantly slows growth abroad or a further spike in oil prices would likely slow the movement of goods globally. Even if a worst-case scenario doesn’t play out, economic uncertainty could lead to near-term volatility for this group. "But that’s what creates tremendous opportunity for appreciation over the long haul," sa
ni ovaj s 100 s prodaje zapravo ne želi prodat, kao da mu 10 kuna igra sad neku ulogu… jednostavno štopa…
izgleda da su se zezli svi koji danas nisu ušli ispod 2800kn
ja prvi među njima [cry]
mada će do kraja vjer. malo pasti, zarada i sada odlična
Kako je netko zapikirao ovu stoticu na asku…
I nisam ovo ni napisao, a ona ode..
izgleda da su se zezli svi koji danas nisu ušli ispod 2800kn
ja prvi među njima [cry]
mada će do kraja vjer. malo pasti, zarada i sada odlična
nije valjda da te KNELE druker ohrabrio da čekaš 2700…
kakvih likova sve nema, nvjerojatno… nijedan smislen odgovor GERONIMU na činjenice, samo Nostradamus prorokovanje, asve u cilju drukanja…
gospodo,cekamo 2900..proslo 2900…kupnja 200 kom na 2900…ideeeees
za one koji ne vide
Kupnja Prodaja
2.900,01 200
2.900,00 44
2.890,00 7
2.889,00 60
2.885,00 20
2.882,00 10
2.881,00 1
2.880,00 4
2.862,01 10
2.860,01 5
2.920,00 3
2.920,33 10
2.926,45 4
2.934,60 5
2.940,00 50
2.950,00 15
2.953,02 4
2.953,03 6
2.955,00 2
2.965,00 16
Kupnje
Cijena Količina
2.900,01 203
ovaj n akupnji s 200 kom,cijeli dan mice nalog,vec je izgubio,50 kn minimalno po dionici..
Pitam se kad će ljudi shvatiti da firma vrijedi i prestat će ovakvi rollercoasteri…evo danas +5,19 i to na jednom blue chipu [shocked]
JESTE LI ZNALI? (kutak za fond managere)
…da su brodogradilista na dalekom istoku u problemima – jeste. Izgleda da je poceli bankroti:
Dhumi Heavy Industries goes bust
A new South Korean shipyard has collapsed before it could start on orders it had secured last year.
Dhumi Heavy Industries bagged up to 20 handysize-bulker contracts from three companies but is now said to have stopped its shipbuilding activities after its owner ran into cash-flow problems.
Shipbuilding sources say the owner, known only as "Mr Lee", was declared bankrupt by a South Korean court last December. He had been unable to repay loans he had taken out.
Dhumi is unable to continue without a cash injection and already some employees are said to have left.
A former employee tells TradeWinds Aktif Denizcilik of Turkey, Navimar of Switzerland and a Singapore-based company called KNC ordered newbuildings at Dhumi. Aktif is said to have contracted six ships plus four options, while KNC booked eight newbuildings and Navimar two.
The former Dhumi employee says steel cutting for the first ship was due to start this year but construction of the shipbuilding site has not even started.
He claims Lee has not been seen for some time. Lee is said to have no shipbuilding experience but to control an architecture firm and cement-making factory in Mokpo.
Dhumi is located near Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries at Mokpo but the two are not connected.
The original plan was to equip the yard with two slipways and a floating dock of 240 metres in length. The size of the entire facility was slated to be around 300,000 square metres.
Some shipbuilding players say Lee is not the sole investor behind Dhumi. The backers reportedly had cash to rent yard space and were hoping to make money from the shipbuilding boom. However, as they apparently do not own much in the way of assets, the banks were unwilling to issue refund guarantees.
"With no refund guarantees issued, owners will not put down their first downpayments and the yard will not have cash to procure shipbuilding materials and build its facilities," said a market expert. "We have been expecting some new yards that joined the business during the boom of the past one or two years to go bust, as the investors behind them are not serious shipbuilders and the investments are borrowed money."
[thumbsup]