CSX officials say CEO transition going well: ‘We’re so much aligned’ (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Daily Record) — Two months after Steve Angel joined CSX Corp. as president and CEO, two other C-Suite executives of the Jacksonville-based railroad company said the transition is going well.
“We’re so much aligned in terms of the detail, making sure that we align our resources properly to get the efficiencies out of them. It’s just been fantastic for the first month and change,” Chief Operating Officer Mike Cory said Dec. 2 at the UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference in Palm Beach.
“I equate it to sports,” Chief Financial Officer Kevin Boone said at the conference.
“People like to be on a winning team, and he’s got clearly a track record of winning, and I think that excites a lot of people, especially the leadership and all the managers and all those that are around that want to win in the market,” he said.
Angel, former CEO of industrial gas and engineering company Linde plc, replaced Joe Hinrichs as chief executive Sept. 28.
“As we speak right now, we’ve got people together looking for synergies that we maybe didn’t look at the same way prior and with Steve, our focus is on service and productivity and price. There’s no question about it and it’s uplifting,” Cory said.
“I think there’s a lot of energy around the building, at least I know and I think out in the field as well,” Boone said.
“He came from an industry, obviously, that in a lot of ways is very similar to ours, focused on price,” he said. “We’re always looking to deliver better service and get paid for that service.”
“I think he’s going to lean into the tools so we can really make sure we understand where there are pricing opportunities,” Boone said. He also expects Angel to make investments to improve the company’s technology.
Looking at the market for CSX’s freight service for the rest of the fourth quarter and into 2026, Boone said the outlook is uncertain.
“Everybody knows where the industrial economy right now is. It’s a pretty mixed bag, right? We’re seeing a lot of challenges in some markets, some opportunities in others, but it’s a very, very mixed bag,” he said.
“The industrial economy has been struggling this year and we have a diverse portfolio, which makes it obviously challenging in some areas, and then we’re going after opportunities.”
Boone said the freight transport markets are strong for metals, minerals and fertilizers, while chemicals and forest products are some of the weaker markets.
He said weakness persists in housing and automobiles.
“The good news is it feels we’re at the lower end of the cycle in those two areas so at some point, we should see that those markets rebound,” Boone said.
“I’m not calling for a rebound necessarily next year. We’ll see, but there is cyclical opportunity in those businesses and we’re well set up, I think, to benefit from that.”
CSX waiting for Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger details
As Boone and Cory spoke at the conference, they were waiting to see the application for the proposed merger of Union Pacific Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp., which was announced in July.
The application was expected to be filed with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board by the end of last week but several reports indicate the companies now will file it next week.
“I actually thought they’re going to file right before Thanksgiving and try to ruin our weekend, but that didn’t happen,” Boone said.
CSX officials will be scrutinizing the application to see how the proposed merger of a major western railroad and CSX’s chief rival in the eastern U.S., Norfolk Southern, will affect the company.
“It’s going to be a long story. It’s a long road ahead,” Boone said.
The merger has sparked speculation that CSX would have to seek a merger to compete, despite opposition to a deal from previous CEO Hinrichs.
Speculation has centered on a merger with the other major western railroad, BNSF Railway, owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has said he’s not interested in a deal with CSX and BNSF indicated more opposition to mergers by filing a challenge to a previous Union Pacific deal.
BNSF said Dec. 1 it is seeking a review of the 1996 merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific by the STB, saying actions by Union Pacific have affected competition and harmed customers.
“Before considering any new consolidation, we ask the board to ensure the commitments made during the UP/SP merger are honored, and that competition is, at a minimum, preserved as required under the prior merger standards,” BNSF Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Jill Mulligan said in a news release.
Boone said CSX will continue to operate from a position of strength no matter how the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern deal plays out.
“We have a network that’s obviously very valuable to all the railroads out there,” Boone said.
“UP is also an important partner of ours. We’ll continue to work with them and move freight because there’s a lot of customers that we serve on each side that still want that service to remain,” he said.
“We’ll obviously want to protect our competitive position going forward and evaluate the filing when it comes out.”