CP cites weather for first-quarter results

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. says severe winter weather cut into volume and increased costs during its first quarter, resulting in earnings of C$33.7 million, or 21 Canadian cents per share. That’s down from C$101 million, or 60 Canadian cents per share, notched in the first quarter of 2010.

Revenue declined much less dramatically, to C$1.16 billion from C$1.17 billion in the first quarter of 2010.

"The first quarter was an extremely difficult winter with weather-related outages significantly constraining our capacity and our service to our customers," the company said in a statement. But CP also said demand is strong.

Operating expenses rose 9.8% during the quarter, attributed mostly to fuel costs. CP’s operating ratio slipped to 90.6% from 82.3% in the year-ago quarter.