Kirby Corporation Reports Sharply Higher Revenue, Earnings

Kirby Corporation on July 28 announced net earnings for the second quarter of $28.5 million or $0.47 per share, compared with $10.2 million or $0.17 per share for the same quarter in 2021. Revenues were $698 million, compared with $559.6 million a year earlier.

“Both of our segments continued to improve during the quarter, delivering higher revenue and operating income sequentially and year-on-year,” said David Grzebinski, president and CEO. “In the inland marine transportation market, pricing on spot and term contracts continued to move higher, with both renewing higher in the mid-teens. We anticipate continued gradual upward movement in pricing in the second half of 2022 with late fourth-quarter term contract renewals setting up for a strong 2023. Distribution and services also performed well as we continued to navigate persistent supply chain constraints. We continue to expect steady progression in quarterly earnings as we move through the remainder of 2022.

“In our coastal marine business, overall market conditions steadily improved during the second quarter, where we did see the few spot contracts that repriced in the quarter renew higher in the low double digits,” he continued. “Utilization rates remained in the low 90 percent range with modest improvements late in the quarter. These trends, combined with previously announced cost savings actions, and higher coal shipments contributed to coastal marine achieving positive operating margins.”

Kirby’s marine transportation segment revenues for the quarter were $405.7 million, compared with $332.9 million a year ago. The segment’s operating margin for the quarter was 7.6 percent, up from 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2021.

Grzebinski said the company expects the momentum the company experienced in the second quarter to continue for the rest of the year.

“The marine market continues to gain strength, and while our second quarter results were impacted by higher fuel costs in marine transportation, we expect to recover these costs during the second half of the year and into 2023,” he said. “Refinery utilization is near historic highs, our barge utilization is strong in both inland and coastal, and rates are steadily increasing.”

Kirby expects 2022 capital spending to be between $170 million and  $190 million. Approximately $5 million is associated with the construction of new inland towboats, and approximately $145 to $155 million is associated with marine maintenance capital and improvements to existing inland and coastal marine equipment and facility improvements. The remainder is for new machinery and equipment in the distribution and services segment, as well as corporate information technology projects, the company said.