Mark Ward: CSX Moving Forward and Running Efficiently

, the railroad and trucking company, released better than expected first quarter earnings Tuesday. Wednesday morning, CSX CEO Mark Ward appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box to talk about the company's new-found efficiency and profit, using the transportation of goods as a crystal ball for some of the key products they ship. "We have some challenges in the coal market, where the inventory is a little high. If we exclude coal revenues in the quarter, our other revenues were up five percent, so we're seeing some vibrancy," said Ward. Coal revenue has declined 13 percent due to last year's cheap natural gas prices and mild winter. According to Ward, this impact from last year hurt the domestic holds business. Currently, Ward said that they're selling off excess inventory from last year's winter. Overall, chemicals are performing well, up by 11 percent in volume mostly due to an increased demand for energy products. Ward mentioned shale as a top contributor. Domestic intermodal (the bread and butter of CSX) is up by five percent, while challenges in the agricultural market are coming from a weak crop last harvest and decreased ethanol usage, some of which, Ward said, is due to fuel efficient cars. When it comes to the automotive market, Ward said expectations are for 15.9 million light vehicles to be produced, surpassing previous projections. Since net income for CSX rose to 2.2 percent to $459 million (45 cents per share), many are wondering what the secret is. Ward said that they're simply running more efficiently. "We started the year thinking we would have $130 million in productivity, we know expect to be in excess of $150 million. As for the U.S. economy overall, Ward says to expect the same slow growth that's been seen in past two years. For the year, he says chemicals, intermodal, and automotive will all be strong, and that agriculture will pick up after the next crop. "Whatever GDP is, we'll grow at a faster rate than that," said Ward. Shares of CSX are up 0.46 percent pre-market. The earnings review for CSX can be viewed

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