Union Pacific's Q2 revenues rise 29% on year amid higher coal demand

Union Pacific's second quarter revenues rose 29% year on year on higher demand across all segments, including coal, the railroad company executives said during the earnings call on July 22.

Across all segments, "our second quarter volume was up 22% from a year ago as all of our major markets improved from the economic shutdowns that we saw from the onset of the pandemic," Kenyatta Rocker, executive vice president of marketing and sales, said during the call.

The revenues for the company's coal and renewables segment stood at $423 million in the second quarter, up 15% on the year. Carloads totaled about 198,000, up 6% year on year, and the average revenue per carload was $2,134 in Q2, compared with $2,051 during the same period in the previous year.

The increase in the coal segment was "due to higher natural gas prices supporting domestic coal demand, winter storm Uri in the first quarter as well as increased coal exports," Rocker said.

Second quarter revenues totaled $5.1 billion, while net income was $1.8 billion, up 59% from the previous year.

"We expect coal to remain stable for the remainder of the year based on the current natural gas futures, as well as export demand," Rocker said.