TOP 100 TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS SITES
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| Ryder System Q3 2009 Earnings Transcript Ryder System Inc. (R)Q3 2009 Earnings CallOctober 22, 2009 11:00 AM ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Baltic Index: Going Fishing Saj Karsan submits:Those interested in finding undervalued stocks among shipping companies, a beaten-down industry (with good reason, as discussed here) will have come across the Baltic Dry Index (BDI), an important measure with which many shipping stocks are somewhat correlated. However, this index operates completely differently than most indexes with which investors are used to working, and therefore an understanding of how it works is imperative in applying its usefulness to making investment decisions. The BDI has recovered well of late, as shown in the 5-yr chart below: Though well off its highs of the last couple of years, the BDI has recovered to 2006 levels, suggesting shipping companies should be able to make money, right? For now, perhaps, but the future does not look great. You see, unlike most indexes we're used to working with, the price of the BDI is not set by the supply and demand of investors, which would make it a forward looking index. Instead, the price is based on the spot (current) supply and demand to ship dry raw materials. There is no element of speculation; the index price represents a composite of what it costs to ship these goods right now over a number of important routes. Why is this distinction important? Because of the nature of the shipping industry. There are long lead times (in the range of several years) for building ships, and so when the economy was strong, the industry appears to have overreacted to the number of new ships that would be required in the coming years. Consider the number of new ships to be delivered in the near future: As those ships continue to add to the supply of existing ships (and they will until 2012), they will put downward pressure on the BDI. The BDI can be a very useful tool for analyzing the state of affairs for dry bulk shipping companies. Care must be taken, however, in understanding how the index works so that investors make informed decisions when it comes to purchasing shipping stocks. Of course, this is only thesupplyside of the equation. We'll leave the discussion of dry-bulkComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
TBS International plc Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript TBS International plc (TBSI)Q4 2009 Earnings CallMarch 16, 2010 11:00 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Can Tesla Motors Deliver Electrifying Growth? Renaissance Capital IPO Research submits: Tesla Motors' (TSLA) mission is to accelerate the world's transition to energy-efficient electric vehicles with its high-performance powertrain technology and superior product design. Backed by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk and a host of big-name investors, Tesla was the first company to commercially produce a highway-capable, fully-electric vehicle (EV) and has sold more than 1,000 of its high-priced, high-performance Tesla Roadsters to customers in 22 countries. With access to $465 million in low-interest loans from the US Dept. of Energy, Tesla recently acquired a production facility on the cheap and seeks to leverage its proprietary electric powertrain technology to produce a line of mainstream EVs, starting with the launch of its Model S luxury sedan in 2012. After increasing its proposed deal size by 20% on Monday, the company plans to sell 13.3 million shares at a proposed range of $14-$16. Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank are the lead underwriters on the deal, which is one of five US deals on the IPO calendar for the week of June 28. Proof of conceptComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Looking Down the Tracks at Slow Growth The Wild Hog submits:In a previous article we looked at the movement of US freight rail traffic and compared it to GDP in an attempt to gauge future growth of the economy. Today we will examine how rail traffic has performed over the past couple of months in order to gain a better perspective for growth in the coming months. In the August Rail Time Indicators Report published by the American Association of Railroads, seasonally adjusted US freight carloads were up 3.2% from June. In the most recent release for the week ending August 7, the number of freight cars originated was 284,507. This is down over 5% from the prior week's huge, and obviously not sustainable, 300,292 carloads, which was the largest weekly total since November 21, 2008. Rail carloads originated have remained subdued, especially after last week's disappointing reading. We were hoping the recent uptick would serve as a positive sign, but our worries have been confirmed 2 fold this past week, by both this reading and the monster Trade deficit. We will examine the trade gap and a few other indicators in an attempt to decipher the future path of US economy growth. The chart below shows both inter-modal traffic and freight loads originated. Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |