Kirby Corp posted higher profit for the third quarter, despite contending with delays on the Illinois River and maintenance downtime in the coastal fleet.
The Houston-based owner of tank barges and tugboats posted $63m in net earnings for the three-month period, up from $39.1m in net profit recorded during the same period last year.
Total revenue improved to $765m for the quarter, up from $748m a year earlier.
The marine transportation segment collected $430m in revenue for the quarter, down from $433m taken in a year ago. The distribution and services division earned $335m in revenue, up from $313m for the same time in 2022.
“Both of our segments continued to perform well during the quarter despite facing some temporary challenges,” chief executive David Grzebinski said in a statement.
“In marine transportation, pricing on spot and term contracts continued to benefit from strong demand and limited availability of barges.”
He said market conditions in the company’s coastal fleet were strong in the third quarter, which saw barge utilisation in the mid-90% range.
“During the quarter, average spot market rates increased in the mid-single digits sequentially and in the low 30% range compared to the 2022 third quarter. Term contracts that renewed in the third quarter increased in the low double digits compared to a year ago.”
But he said downtime pushed revenue down compared to the third quarter of 2022.
Grzebinski noted that average inland barge utilisation for the third quarter was 80%, which was lower than a year ago due to Illinois River lock closures and several refinery outages.
New York-listed Kirby registered $1.05 earnings per share for the third quarter, beating analyst estimates by $0.03.
“Going forward, marine rates and margins continue to accelerate, the D&S business appears stable and is generating solid returns, and ultimately we believe the company is on a path to growing EPS by more than 50% by 2025,” Stifel analyst Ben Nolan wrote in a note on Thursday.
“With low leverage, and significant free cash flow, we view KEX shares as a low risk compounder.”
For the first nine months of 2023, Kirby earned $161m in profit, up from $85m during the same period in 2022.
Revenue for the period totalled $2.29bn, up from $2.06bn for the first nine months of last year.
