Good afternoon. My name is Sylvie, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Canadian Pacific's fourth quarter 2021 conference call. The slides accompanying today's call are available at www.cpr.ca. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, simply press star then number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then number two. I would like to introduce Maeghan Albiston, Vice President, Capital Markets, to begin the conference.
Thank you, Sylvie. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I want to remind you that this presentation contains forward-looking information and actual results may differ materially. The risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could influence actual results are described on slide two in the press release and in the MD&A filed with Canadian and U.S. regulators. This presentation also contains non-GAAP measures, which are outlined on slide three. With me here today is Keith Creel, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Nadeem Velani, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and John Brooks, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Also attending our call today on behalf of Kansas City Southern, our CEO, Pat Ottensmeyer, and CFO, Mike Upchurch, who will be happy to answer questions regarding KCS.
As CP investors are aware, KCS is now beneficially owned by CP through a voting trust pending control approval by the STB. During this trust period and prior to the STB approving CP's control of KCS, CP and KCS operate independently, and KCS's business is managed by its own officers and is overseen by its own board of directors. During this trust period and prior to the STB making a determination regarding control, CP and KCS operate as two independent arm's-length companies. As a result, only KCS management is truly in a position to answer investor questions regarding their performance and results. I would highlight that KCS has posted an information package to their website. Should you have any questions about KCS's performance that aren't addressed on today's call, please feel free to reach out to Mike, Ashley and the KCS team.
We will start the call with some formal remarks and follow that up with a question-and-answer period. In the interest of time and to allow as many participants as possible, we would appreciate if you could limit your questions to one. It is now my pleasure to introduce our President and CEO , Mr. Keith Creel.
Okay, thank you, Maeghan. Let me welcome Mike and Pat to the call today as well, and then proceed to thank our CP family. You know, I say this a lot, railroading is an outdoor sport, but I can tell you this quarter had some exceptionally challenging conditions that the team's commitment, grit, and determination certainly was tested. To overcome and produce this result under those truly incredible conditions, I think deserves a special thanks. You know, from the catastrophic flooding in British Columbia, which we're all very aware of, that occurred in November, they took a deep breath from what I would call was a miraculous effort to get the railroad open again in eight days to snowplow right into 40-degree temperatures again as we closed the year out, which carried into January.
Again, outdoor sport, yes. Winter, yes, we know it, but I'll tell you, this was an exceptional outcome given the challenges that they faced. Thank you for that, and thank you for your commitment, your sacrifice. To the results themselves, the quarter, we delivered fourth quarter revenues of CAD 2 billion, an operating ratio of 57.5, and adjusted EPS of CAD 0.95. For the full year, our total revenues were up 4%. The operating ratio 57.6, which is 50 basis points increase over last year's record OR. Adjusted EPS of CAD 3.76 represents revenue growth of 7% versus last year. As I said, the CP family finished the year with a strong operating performance in spite of the challenges we faced.
To think that we were able to drive productivity improvements and still increase train lengths and weights 3% respectively, again, is an outstanding result. Fuel efficiency as well, in spite of those challenges, improving by 1%, an outstanding result. All three of these metrics were new record lows for the company. On the safety front, something we're extremely proud of, personal injuries were down 17% year-over-year to a new all-time CP low. This marks the sixth consecutive year of improvements on the personal injury front, and it's a testament to the team's commitment, and that's all 12,000 employees, to coming home safely every day. That said, this is an area where we don't rest. Safety is a journey. I say that often. You never arrive.
While we're certainly proud of the progress that we've made on the injury front, we did see a bit of step up in train accidents from our all-time record low of last year. That said, again, for the 16th consecutive year, we're proud that our commitment to people, process, and technology allows us to enjoy the best safety record in the industry. We know there's more to do. With that said, we're gonna continue to leverage technology and the strong safety culture that we have at this company to drive further improvements in this area. Focusing on the sustainability front, this is another area that we continue to make significant progress.
We're proud to have been named the highest ranked freight transportation company on the Corporate Knights Global 100 Index, as well as named for the second consecutive year to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index. On the hydrogen front, which is all becoming more topical as the days progress, we continue to demonstrate our leadership in this space, commitment to a more sustainable future through our hydrogen locomotive project. With the additional grant funding that we received from the Emissions Reduction Alberta, we've been able to expand the scope to three locomotives and two fueling stations as we enter into 2022. We look forward to moving from the lab setting into the next phase of switching and road trials. I am very happy to say that our hydrogen locomotive in the fourth quarter moved from concept to reality.
It actually moved in its own volition, under its own power. It's not a concept, it's not spin, it's fact, and it's gonna change, in a very meaningful way, the emission footprint of freight locomotives in this industry. On the transaction itself, that's another area, again, in the fourth quarter, very excited to hit a milestone with our CPKC journey, closing KCS into trust on December the fourteenth. The regulatory review process is well underway. No doubt many of you have likely seen some of the early headlines related to this process. We're gonna respect the regulatory process. We're gonna work with the other rails and the shipping groups to find reasonable solutions to address the concerns, reasonable concerns that might arise.
We're extremely excited too about our ability to reach an agreement with Amtrak, demonstrating our commitment to passenger service, not only on the CP network, but most specifically to the Baton Rouge and New Orleans network on the KCS railroad. Our customers are enthusiastic about the opportunity for the seamless, efficient, reliable single line rail service across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. John will elaborate, I'm sure we can address it in Q&A, but we have all been intimately involved getting in front of our customers.
We've made over 90 customer contacts talking about the art of the possible, talking about what this new transnational railroad, assuming it's approved or when it's approved by the STB, and we will be able to go to work creating and reaching new markets and service that, quite frankly, has never been possible and I believe will only be, forever is a long time, but I think the single one and only transnational railroad to exist in the North American continent. With that, let me hand it over to John to bring a bit more color on the markets, and then Nadeem will elaborate on the numbers, and we'll save the balance of the time for Q&A.
All right. Well, thank you, Keith, and good afternoon, everyone. As Keith spoke about the fourth quarter, with certainly that other reminder that this is an outdoor sport, we knew this quarter was gonna be challenging, certainly given the grain comps, but the BC outage certainly applied even more pressure to our customers and to our volumes. My team did as they always do. We stayed super close to our customers and our operating team, and they worked hard to find solutions across our marketplace, as our western part of our network continued to recover through the quarter. While Q4 performance certainly was challenging all in 2021 full year, with a record for our freight revenue and our total revenue.
Now looking specifically at Q4, revenues were up 1% in the quarter despite an 11% decline in RTMs. Fuel and FX combined to be a 4% tailwind, and price and mix combined to be positive 8%. As you've all heard over the past few weeks from many in the transport industry, the pricing environment continues to be very strong. Now taking a closer look at our fourth quarter revenue performance, I'll speak to the results in a currency adjusted basis. Grain volumes were down 21% on the quarter, while revenues were down 12%. As expected, the 40% reduction in the Canadian crop is driving this decline in volumes. The good news is we've taken the decline in the Canadian grain crop and created an opportunity.
We had an all-time record quarter and year for our U.S. grain franchise with 30% year-over-year RTM growth. As an example, the team worked extremely hard with our shippers and receivers to create a new supply chain to offset some of the challenges in Canada by moving U.S. corn into Canadian cattle feedlots to supplement the shortage of domestic feed. We expect the challenges in Canadian grain to persist until we get the new crop in Q3. We will start to get some better visibility into the potential of the 2022 crop in the spring, but we are certainly happy to see snow on the ground across the prairies, providing much needed moisture. Now on the potash front, volumes were down 4% on the quarter, where revenues were up 14%.
Decrease in volume reflects the BC flood outage, but we worked closely with Canpotex to minimize the volume lost by moving more trains to Portland. As you would have seen in December, we announced the signing of our new long-term contract with Canpotex. We are proud to extend this partnership and we expect to see high single-digit volume growth in 2022 as Canpotex continues to see strong demand in its global markets. As we close out the bulk business, coal revenues were down 14%, while volumes were down 27% as the supply chain was challenged by the floods, resulting in reduced volumes from the mines and more trains routing north to Ridley. Moving on to merchandise. The Energy Chemicals Plastics portfolio saw revenues increase 15% on slightly negative volumes. We had a record full year revenue performance in ECP despite flat volumes in crude.
I'm excited to see two new growth opportunities in ECP with Independent Energy beginning to produce ultra-low sulfur diesel. Inter Pipeline commissioning their new plastics facility in the Alberta Heartland. Both of these new customers are expected to start rail operations in Q2, and CP is proud to be their preferred rail partner. Now, for the full year, we moved about 60,000 carloads of crude. In 2022, we expect that run rate to slightly decline and the last of our contract liquidated damages to roll off through the year. The DRU unit at Hardisty, Alberta has successfully ramped up, and we are at a run rate of 50,000 barrels per day that we expected as phase one of this initiative. As a reminder, the DRU process produces a non-hazardous DRUbit product that CP exclusively services from Hardisty, and this movement goes to Kansas City for interchange to the KCS.
In forest products, volumes were flat, while revenues were up 10%. It was a record Q4 in forest products, and the team continues to deliver strong price performance. In MMC, revenues were up 28% and volumes increased 20%, largely driven by our frac sand business, our steel business, and almost double-digit growth in our transload business. Our service product is winning in both unit train and single carload business in these manifest markets. Automotive revenues were down 18%, while volumes were down 19% on the quarter. The chip shortage and COVID-related facility shutdowns continue to challenge our OEMs. Despite these latest disruptions related to the Omicron variant, the 2022 outlook is looking better, particularly as we move into the second half of the year.
We were excited last week to see our first Chevy Silverado vehicles load onto rail at GM's Oshawa plant. CP and GM have partnered on this new business for the distribution of these vehicles. Now finally, on our intermodal side of our business, quarterly volumes were down 5% and revenue was up 9%. We have now had five consecutive record quarters for our domestic intermodal franchise, even with the significant disruptions in BC. The new Pacific Transload Express facility we opened in Vancouver with Maersk is offering our domestic intermodal customers new distribution solutions while enabling Maersk to spin their containers back faster to overseas markets. Our transload solution will take thousands of trucks off the roads of Vancouver, while at the same time delivering new revenue growth in 2022 to our franchise. We are also very proud of a new multi-year contract with Canadian Tire.
Our long-standing partnership with Canadian Tire is growing stronger and we look forward to continued collaboration with their team to deliver supply chain solutions across Canada. Now finally, our international franchise. Supply chain challenges and the BC outage negatively impacted our volumes in the quarter, but I can tell you the team is working hard with our port partners and customers to regain fluidity. We see strong pent-up import demand and anticipate ongoing recovery as we move through 2022. Let me close by saying, you know, we're looking, as I see it, at record demand levels across many of our lines of business and see opportunities to overcome the Canadian grain headwind ahead of us. As always, my team is laser-focused on pricing to the value of our service and capacity, and we are working closely with our customers to help them win in their marketplace.
As Keith referenced, you know, we met with almost close to 100 customers in Q4 to educate them on our new routes and the competitive alternatives that the CP KCS combined network, once we're approved by the STB, will create. I can tell you the opportunity list is growing longer and the customer feedback remains extremely positive. With that, I'll stop and turn it over to Nadeem.
Thanks, John, and good afternoon. 2021 was a year of challenges that highlighted the team's resiliency. As we look to 2022, we are excited about the opportunity ahead of us, but it's not without some noise. You'll notice that we did not provide formal guidance in our press release. With so many moving pieces, we think it would create false precision to provide guidance, as there are more variables than usual that we don't control. For example, on the KCS front, we do not have control of their operations and did not create their 2022 plan, so we'll not be providing guidance as to their expected performance and its impact on our earnings.
With the timing and conclusion of the regulatory process in the hands of the STB, as well as with Omicron and other macro factors presenting some near-term uncertainty, we felt it was prudent not to provide formal guidance. We're committed to providing as much transparency as we are able to, and I'll provide key modeling data points in my remarks where appropriate. Now looking at Q4 overall, the operating ratio increased 530 basis points to 59.2%. On an adjusted basis, the operating ratio was 57.5%, a 360 basis points increase from Q4 2020.
I will remind you that Q4 2020 included a 330 basis point impact from the Detroit River Tunnel transaction. Taking a closer look at a few items on the expense side, I will speak to the variances on an FX adjusted basis. Comp and benefits expense was down 6% or CAD 25 million versus last year. The primary driver of the decrease is lower volume in the quarter. Fuel expense increased CAD 66 million or 40% primarily as a result of higher fuel prices. This year, we once again achieved a full-year record fuel efficiency, moving us a step closer to our 38% locomotive emissions reduction targets. Materials expense was down 6% or CAD 3 million as a result of lower volumes in the quarter.
Equipment rents were down 12% or CAD 4 million as a result of lower volume and lower prices paid for pooled equipment. Depreciation expense was CAD 206 million, an increase of 6% as a result of a higher asset base. For CP standalone, we expect a similar CAD 40 million increase in 2022 as our asset base grows. Purchase services was CAD 250 million, an increase of CAD 56 million or 29% when adjusted for acquisition costs. The main driver of the increase is lapping the gain related to our acquisition of the Detroit River Tunnel for a total of CAD 68 million in Q4 2020.
Moving below the line, we are recognizing 18 days of equity pickup from KCS, which included CAD 169 million of transaction costs incurred at the end of the year, which we've excluded for our adjusted diluted EPS. Other components of net periodic benefit recovery increased CAD 16 million, reflecting lower discount rates. In 2022, we expect this to be relatively flat to 2021. Net interest expense is up CAD 12 million as a result of higher debt load since we issued CAD 10.7 billion in acquisition debt during the quarter. We issued a total of $6.6 billion of U.S. and CAD 2.2 billion of Canadian dollar denominated debt with a weighted average coupon of 2.4%. Financing across multiple tenors allowed us to finance at very attractive rates while also maintaining the financial flexibility to delever in accordance with our plans.
For 2022, CP standalone interest expense should be approximately CAD 650 million. Income tax expense decreased CAD 44 million or 23%, primarily as a result of a lower effective tax rate. Rounding out the income statement, adjusted diluted EPS decreased 6% to CAD 0.95 in the quarter. Moving on to full- year results on the next slide. The fourth quarter performance caps a challenging year for the CP family. Our full year adjusted operating ratio was 57.6, a 50 basis point increase year over year. Adjusted income grew 7%, and our record adjusted diluted EPS increased 7%. As you model out 2022, we would expect CP's average share count to be approximately 930 million shares, and for the corporate tax rate to be in the 24%-24.5% range.
We were prudent with our balance sheet this year with actions taken to pause the buyback program and dividend growth as we work on the transformational opportunity of our merger with KCS. Leverage is currently at its peak as we have issued all of our acquisition debt. You'll see our leverage rapidly come down as we pay down acquisition debt over the coming 24 months. The buyback and dividend increases will remain paused until we return to our 2.5 x debt to EBITDA target. We are already starting to see cash flow from KCS with a dividend in January this month that will be applied to outstanding debt. Before wrapping up, I want to provide a little accounting context around the KCS equity pickup.
We are recognizing 100% of their net income in our financial statements as one line below operating income, reflecting that we do not have control. In Q4 2021, we only owned the shares for 18 days, so you see 18 days of equity pickup, which includes $169 million of transaction costs, creating the loss you see in those 18 days. Embedded in the equity pickup will be the step-up in depreciation and amortization from the preliminary purchase price allocation. In 2022, we expect the depreciation step-up to be approximately $220 million. Partially offsetting the increase in depreciation will be credits for deferred taxes and interest expense. The net impact to the equity pickup is a reduction of $125 million from KCS's 2020 equity income.
2021 tested our mettle, and our team of railroaders rose to the occasion at every turn. 2022 will be a year of opportunity, but it will not be without some noise. We'll work hard to be as transparent as possible as we move through the regulatory process. I'm proud of the team and look forward to what we can accomplish in 2022. With that, let me pass things over to Keith to wrap things up before Q&A.
Thanks, Nadeem and John. Let me close my remarks by, you know, saying sort of looking forward as we move past some of the uncertainty and disruptions, we're super excited about the opportunities that lie ahead of us in 2022. The demand environment is strong. You couple that with our unique initiatives and our service capabilities. This positions us to succeed in 2022 and beyond. You combine our standalone opportunities with that of this combined CPKC network. The future is extremely bright.
Please stand by while we reconnect Keith's line.Please stand by everyone.
We're getting no audio.
Ladies and gentlemen, please continue to stand by while we reconnect the host site.
Hello.
Please go ahead, sir. You've been reconnected.
Okay. I'm going to assume that everything that I said, which quite frankly I think the remarks that I made a minute ago were not heard. Apologize for the technical difficulties. Let me back up and just say, you know, thank you, John and Nadeem for that color. I'm gonna close my remarks by saying, as we look forward through 2022, we get past some of the uncertainty and the disruptions. We're excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. This demand environment is extremely strong. You couple that with our unique initiatives and our service capabilities, we're extremely well-positioned to succeed.
Please stand by, ladies and gentlemen. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please continue to stand by while we reconnect.
Operator, I think this is Nadeem Velani. We have myself and Keith Creel.
Please go ahead.
All right, we can open up for Q&A.
Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touch tone phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. As previously highlighted, please limit your questions to one. There will be a brief pause while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question will be from Walter Spracklin at RBC. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you, Walter.
Perhaps we could start with just a question on concessions. I know I get a lot of those if Keith you can hear me if there's you know get a lot of those from investors. There's been a lot of noise in the filings. You mentioned that, you know, you're separating what's reasonable from what's not reasonable. Can you highlight what areas of requests that you might deem reasonable that you received and that we may see and
Do you continue to be of the view that material concessions continue to be unlikely as part of the outcome for this review?
Well, let me, Walter, hopefully you can hear me okay. I'll start with confirming the statement that you just made. You know, often we think about this, significant concessions are required to offset losses of competition. Network overlap, predatory pricing, or poor service, and none of those points are true about this transaction, this proposed transaction. That's the starting point. You know, the requests that have been made so far, not a surprise, obviously. We expected everybody to come to the table, asking for certain things. At the same time, as we said from the very beginning, we're gonna negotiate on reasonable terms. Reasonableness is a two-way conversation, obviously. Again, pro-competitive facts, to me, leads to a good outcome for the customer, for the country, for the freight network.
Significant concessions, when you have good facts and they all support competition, are not a reasonable expectation for anyone to come to the table with. That's probably the best way I can say it. I can tell you, Walter, I was very encouraged to see the STB's recent ruling. I think about what that says to me. I think it says this is a fair and open process. I think it demonstrates a commitment to the procedural schedule and a commitment to an efficient and timely review of our proposed transaction, all which bodes well for the very positive pro-competitive facts of this combination.
appreciate the time as always. Thank you, Keith.
Thank you, Walter.
Thank you. Next question will be from Tom Wadewitz at UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon. Keith, my understanding is that, you know, you're obviously constrained on the operating side. You can't touch the KCS network. But from a customer perspective, you can go to customers, obviously. I mean, you said, I guess, I don't know if it was in conjunction with KCS management, but you know, 100 calls or meetings is a lot. Do you think that we would expect any kind of new win type of announcements in 2022 of business related to the combination that, you know, you're able to reach, you know, talking together with KCS, you know, auto contracts, new ag sites you'll be serving, things like that?
You know, let me start by saying, you know, we have to handle this in a very singular fashion. You know, Pat Ottensmeyer's team is handling KCS's business. CP, obviously myself and our team handling ours. There's nothing that prevents us from going to a customer that might be interested in or that might benefit from this new proposed single line service. Assuming the STB approves the transaction, we can make any discussion contingent upon that. The answer is yes, that's possible. But at this point, I can tell you the meetings that we've had, the lines here I participated in, their CP team talking about CP opportunities with our customers. Then obviously we discussed what the future might look like. The groundwork is being laid.
You know, the key point with our customers, you know, to get into long-term contracts that lock you out of the opportunity to benefit from the pro-competitive nature and opportunities and options of this transaction, to me, it's a customer's decision to make. But obviously we're doing our best to educate them to the benefits of not choosing that so that they can uniquely benefit from the unique benefits this combination is gonna create. So hopefully that answers your question, Tom. We gotta be very careful not to exert, and we will not exert control or influence over KCS, the standalone. But again, the two together can talk about what the future looks like and what that might mean for the customer, assuming the STB approves our transaction.
It sounds like maybe keep the expectations low for this year and probably setting the stage for more to come after the approval.
Yeah, we're certainly not baking in any customer wins or business as a result of the transaction. We're just preparing for and laying the groundwork for what's to come beyond the possible.
Great. Thank you, Keith.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tom.
Next question will be from Fadi Chamoun at BMO. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. A question along the same lines. I mean, you have this Amtrak support statement, which clearly addresses a key concern by regulators. Are there other things that you can potentially kinda try to firm up you know ahead of this regulatory process with you know other key parties in this transaction, like short lines or even other railroads? I just wonder if there are things that you can you know address potentially before this we go to the hearing process, maybe you know a little bit later on, so.
Yeah. Yeah. Fadi, great question. The answer is absolutely yes. I would suggest that the individual parties, if we can reach agreement on whatever the item might be, come to reasonable terms between ourselves, whether it's with a short line, whether it's with a main line, whether it's with a customer, whether it's with an association. I think the STB would prefer that. Obviously those discussions are being had in all those areas. We've had discussions, some more than others, with all the Class Is. We've had discussions with short lines. We're having discussions with the shipping organization.
We're prepared to make ourselves available to have reasonable discussions, to listen to concerns and hopefully come to reasonable, acceptable solutions between all of those parties prior to, alongside, I guess, in parallel with the merger application process.
Are the views like when you kind of address some of these things with the other Class I carriers, are the views widely different between where you see things and where they want things to go?
Well, the way I look at it, you know, number one, I'm going to listen to what the ask is. But the backdrop I compare it to and, you know, obviously I've got a lot of precedent. I've got a lot of history that we can review because this is moving forward under the old rules. Obviously there is a catalog of different deals that have been done and concessions and agreements that have been made that have been filed with the STB. We have the benefit of precedent and the benefit of those that have navigated these waters before us. You know, we've made certain commitments, obviously, to keep interchanges open on reasonable terms and in physical terms. We're not going to create new bottleneck pricing.
We're willing to enter into some reasonable arbitrated settlement process in individual discussions with our shipping groups and/or our customers. There's a menu of options that are on the table and, but always with a backdrop of, I understand, we understand what the laws are. We understand that pro-competitive is what the STB seeks. When we represent pro-competitive facts, that puts us in a very strong position to have these discussions on reasonable terms, again, to come to reasonable solutions. If they're not, I've said this before, you know, if we can't resolve it because someone's being unreasonable, then if we have to at the end, that's what will be tabled, and that's what the STB ultimately will have the final.
Okay, great. Appreciate it. Thanks.
Thank you, Fadi Chamoun.
Thank you. Next question will be from Chris Wetherbee at Citi. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. I appreciate that there's a lot of moving parts to this year, certainly. But I was hoping that maybe we could talk a little bit about, you've got two fronts, maybe how you see, you know, the volume, you know, dynamic playing out. Obviously, there's been some challenges outside of your control in 2021, but maybe thoughts around at least maybe the ramp of volume as we go through 2022. Just any thoughts, Nadeem, you have in terms of operating ratio. I know you gave us some help on some individual line items within the cost, within you know, the cost, but I guess I want to get a sense of on a CP standalone basis, how you're thinking about OR for 2022.
With, without getting into guidance, I'll give some high level color, and I'll let Nadeem fill in any blanks that he might want to. You know, this is the way I see it, Chris. You know, this is a tell or two stories this year. We obviously have pretty tough comps. First half, we don't have grain this year. We had grain last year. You know, we had a unicorn January, the best weather condition January that I've experienced in my history railroading in a Canadian railroad, as it compared to last year. That's not the case this year. There's some obvious pressures from fluidity, from operating conditions and from a compare standpoint on volumes that we won't benefit from that are headwinds in the first half.
You could expect RPMs to be down in the first half, but in the second half. Again, what's true in the first turns to a tailwind in the second. We've got weather on our side. We've got very favorable comps. We hope and we anticipate with all that snow that's falling, we're going to see a more normal grain harvest that comes in the fourth quarter when the new grain starts to move. I think you're going to see autos, some of the chip shortages that start to normalize and to stabilize. Again, with that demand environment, you fill that valley in with grain and with all these other initiatives, with these contract wins that John's spoken to, that gets us to, from a run rate on the second half, double-digit RTM growth.
That leads us to positive RTM growth for the year. That leads us to margin improvement for the year. That leads us to positive EPS growth for the year, all on a standalone basis.
Okay. That's super helpful. Appreciate that.
Thank you. Next question will be from Jason Seidl at Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Keith and team, thanks for taking my call. I wanted to talk a little bit about the intermodal sector. It seems like the way you guys are couching it might be more of a back half story as congestion eases. I just want to make sure I'm reading that right. Also, I wanted to see if you guys have seen any inquiries, given sort of the vaccine mandate there, for cross-border traffic, in the trucking industry.
Hey, Jason, this is John. I'll jump in there.
Hey, John.
You know, I think certainly on the international side of the business, we've got a lot of pent-up import demand out there, not only in Vancouver on the water. I do think it's going to take a little bit of time to grind through that. The good news is the volumes are nowhere representative of the demand environment if you think about international intermodal for us.
Domestically, we've run strong. You know, I expect our domestic intermodal franchise to continue to execute. I think you'll see a strong Q1, Q2, and as I said, I think we're expecting another record year for our domestic intermodal franchise in that space. Maybe it's a little different between the two. Yeah, probably more of a second-half story on international. I would expect a strong full year on our domestic franchise.
Okay. Regarding the cross-border?
You know what? We were looking at sort of our volume on a few of our train pairs early this morning and, you know, we haven't seen a lot of variability yet. I can tell you there's a fair amount of discussion going on with our customers on that front, but I would say we're kind of in a wait-and-see mode right now in that cross-border.
Okay. I appreciate the time as always, gentlemen.
Yep.
Thank you. Next question will be from Steve Hansen at Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks, guys, for the time. John, I wanted to circle back on one of your comments on the petchem side, where you talked about the opportunity on, I think it was both plastics and the ultra-low sulfur diesel opportunity. Your peer has also been talking about this concept of renewable diesel and the big opportunity it might present in the coming years. Is that something that you see also starting to ramp up on your line as well? Just give us some context around that broader step up over time.
Steve, thanks. Thanks for the question. It definitely is. You know, not only across Canada as we're working, you know, certainly close with the input side, with the whether it be canola oil or other oils, but also on our U.S. franchise. As you know, we're looking at opportunities for additional soybean crush on our franchise as feedstock for those opportunities. So I think the easier answer is yes, we see this as sort of a long-term opportunity for the franchise.
Frankly, you know, if the STB grants control and as we look to the future relative to CPKC, I think it's a tremendous opportunity as we've got the feedstock in the origin franchise planted in the right spot with the grain customers and, you know, potentially the single line haul to get down to the refineries and into the Gulf market. I think standalone, it's a good story for CP and in the future, CPKC could provide a pretty good opportunity also.
Appreciate the color. Thanks.
Yep.
Thank you. Next question will be from Brandon Oglenski at Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Just a point of clarification. I think I heard earlier that Pat Ottensmeyer and Mike Upchurch were on the call. Is it okay if I ask a question of them on KCS?
Of course.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Hey, guys, and I apologize, I didn't realize you put out your earnings release until this call, so I'm not that great at multitasking. It looks like, you know, things came in pretty much in line with where maybe we thought it would be, maybe margins a little bit ahead. I guess, what can you talk about, you know, some of the opportunities and challenges that you see approaching here in 2022 for your network? Appreciate it.
Yeah. This is Mike. I'll give you just a quick overview here. I think on the volume and revenue side, we would expect to continue to see nice growth. We believe that all of our segments, with the exception of chemical, and really due to the refined product issue that I think has been well discussed in the past, should grow. We have a lot of new facilities on our line, particularly in the steel side of the business. We have ArcelorMittal, Ternium, Steel Dynamics, all with major facilities built in the U.S. Gulf Coast or down in Mexico at Pesquería and Lázaro Cárdenas. We should see a little bounce back in auto. Grain, I think, looks really strong with significant growth in the cross-border grain shipments.
We also are really excited about an expansion of the Diamond Green Diesel renewable diesel facility that's going to add some growth. You know, the DRU facility down in Port Arthur should add some growth. We're pretty excited about the growth opportunities and that should lead to good volume and revenue growth. On the cost side, as you know from our first three quarterly earnings releases we had in 2021, we had some cost challenges. Those are behind us. Really, to John Orr's leadership and the entire operating team, many thanks to them. We really have a network that's running very, very efficiently right now.
2022 is gonna be all about continuing to generate productivity on the labor side and around fuel efficiency and continuing to better leverage our equipment and our franchise. You know, we're pretty excited about those opportunities here in 2022.
Yeah, Brandon, I would just add to that, if you look at the package that we put on our website, look at some of the operating metrics and statistics that we included in that package, including the performance of our grain fleet. We definitely had some weakness in a couple of the areas that Mike mentioned. The cross-border refined fuels continues to lag because of some regulatory changes in Mexico. Our service has improved just substantially since the middle of last year. We are well positioned. We think we've got good visibility to some of these opportunities coming back. Our network is performing extremely well. I think we're in great shape to see and take advantage of those growth opportunities when they come back.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question will be from Ken Hoexter at Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, great. Pat, Keith, congrats on closing the acquisition. Keith, obviously, a lot of cost impacts here. Maybe you can talk a little bit about anything ongoing costs, talk about the restructuring costs and what you plan to spend. I don't know if it's too early for that or maybe just walk us through what we should expect this year in terms of the impact on costs. Pat, just on, you know, coming back to your thoughts there on KCS, any thoughts on the outlook that you're providing with for KCS at this time?
Yeah. Ken, it's Nadeem. Just wanna clarify, when you say impact of costs, can you just clarify that?
I guess there are two phases. One is on M&A, and the second would be any kind of restructuring costs. I guess it's too early until you blend the companies, right? Just by standalone operating, it's just a mathematical example. Is there any other costs we should be aware of, you know, in terms of the ownership structure here in mid-2022? I guess it's too early to talk about restructuring into 2023.
Yeah. No, you're right. It's too early in 2023. But I would say, you know, we've talked about this being a growth story. You know, that's gonna be additive to headcount over time as we grow the two networks and add on the synergies that we talked about, the $1 billion of synergies, and then some cost savings through IT and finance and some headcount as we talked about there, shifting to Kansas City.
Apart from that, you know, in 2022, I talked a little bit about the equity pickup and, you know, we'd have our net income from KCS would come up through our net income, but there would be some depreciation step up of about $220 million. And there'd be an offset to that, of about $40 million of credit for the fair value increase in Kansas City Southern's debt, and also an offset of about $55 million credit for deferred taxes. That's the income statement impact that I'd highlight. Apart from that, nothing as far as costs or restructuring.
Then, Pat, any thoughts? Did you provide an outlook any different than what?
No
... what CP is talking about in terms of forecast?
We have not, and we're going to shy away from that at this time. Just so many uncertainties about COVID and the impact on workforce and supply chain congestion and chip issues affecting auto and auto-related business, and then the future trend in refined products. We're going to stay away from specific guidance at this point. As Mike covered and I touched on with our service, I think we see opportunities for some pretty nice productivity gains when volume recoveries occur.
All right. Great. Thanks for the time and insight.
Thanks, Ken.
Thank you. Next question will be from Jonathan Chappell at Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Good timing for the follow-up. Pat, you touched on just really briefly there refined products. Obviously, Mexican administration's made a big announcement since we last spoke to you in October on oil dependency or independency, I should say. Refined products has been such a huge growth, you know, silo for you over the last couple of years. I know you're not giving guidance, but how should we think about the Mexican administration's new views on oil and refined products and how that relates to your rail and either growth or maybe even some deceleration there?
Yeah. This is Mike. I'll go ahead and take that one. Obviously, this market has been a terrific opportunity for us, at least through midyear 2021. Then the government really stepped up regulations, inspecting cars because some shippers were illegally labeling the product to avoid excise tax. The next step the government took was to inspect and shut down a number of refined product rail terminals that were receiving this product in Mexico. You know, we're beginning to see stabilization in that business, so that's good news. Hard to predict exactly where that's going to take us here in 2022. If you think about the overall macro environment here, the demand is still relatively weak in Mexico.
Pemex did in 2021 over, you know, easy comps in 2020, increased production, but really not above 2018 and 2019 levels. We'll kind of see, you know, what their production is for 2022. Imports have clearly shifted from rail to truck, and that's what's hurt our business because of the closure of these rail receiving terminals in Mexico. They've inspected pretty much every terminal in Mexico. The good news is, companies are beginning to get approval to continue to be open. We're optimistic that market will stabilize here and hopefully even grow.
Because the macro environment, Pemex is only producing about a third of the overall demand in Mexico. The other two-thirds has to come from imports and that's where, you know, we are very hopeful that we'll see a shift back from truck to rail, which is much more economical. Maybe one final point, Pemex just recently announced acquisition of a Deer Park refinery, and they're really looking to ship a lot of fuel, heavy fuel oil into that facility and then refined product down back into Mexico. We're gonna be ultra focused on finding a way to work with Pemex to make them successful, both on the shipments north and the refined products back.
Hopefully that gives you a little bit of color on this market, and still long term, we believe this is a good growth opportunity for us.
Definitely does. Thanks for all that detail, Mike.
Thank you. Next question will be from Scott Group at Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Last year we talked about potential for a 55 OR standalone, and obviously there were a lot of challenges last year. Keith, do you think it's possible to get there this year or is that more of a 2023 when we get the grain recovery?
Yeah. Realistically, Scott, without giving you guidance, obviously again, telling two stories, it's gonna be challenging, obviously to get to that level. I see a path to OR improvement and obviously when things normalize, we get into 2023 with a normal grain crop. The benefit of that meaningful volume then those outcomes become more achievable. Not in 2022.
Okay. Can I just ask John just one question? With the revenue synergy targets, I'm sure there are some bigger, lumpier kinds of contracts that you have in mind. Just directionally, are there a lot of those opportunities in late 2022, 2023, in terms of the bigger contracts in mind?
Yeah, I think so, Scott. As Keith said earlier, you know, we've undertaken a pretty aggressive outreach to the customers in some of those areas that might have lumpier contracts to talk to them about, you know, why they need to think about if the STB does grant control that, you know, don't miss the opportunity for this new competitive option in the marketplace. It's been received well. You know, Scott, so you've got that bucket of opportunities, and then I think you got a whole bunch that are out there that, you know, just contract timing works well. As we create a new product, it opens up those opportunities for those customers, regardless of their contract status.
You know, I'll give you an example, and you probably saw some of this, but you know, most recently you've had two major Canadian companies announce where they've made acquisitions into the United States in more of the global and North American markets, one being Richardson International and the other one just most recently being Viterra. You look at those opportunities and those are synergies that sort of go above and beyond, but they're totally indicative of what we believe this North American combination can create. The desire for some of these companies to invest, to be able to help create the opportunity or share in the new routes that this combination creates is powerful.
With those two examples, you know, those are big base customers for CP today that are very excited about, you know, what this combination, if we get approval, you know, presents them.
Helpful. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Scott.
Thank you. Next question will be from Konark Gupta at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thanks, good afternoon, everyone. Just wanted to come back to the demands from your competitors that you have received so far and potentially will receive from the remaining guys shortly. If in case, Keith, I know you mentioned that you will address all reasonable demands. When you address any reasonable demand from your competitors, especially, do you see or anticipate any kind of impact on your stated synergy targets, you know, considering you may be required to perhaps divest some sections or let go some lanes? Can you talk a little bit about the impact potentially on synergy targets from those demands?
Well, listen, I'd be speculating, but let me stick to facts. They tend to always work best for me. When it comes to significant concessions, the facts don't support it. You know, specifically divestiture, I know there was one particular railroad, our main competitor, that suggested they'd love to see us divest along Springfield to Kansas City. If you get to the facts, some of the assumptions that were made in that request, or that proposed request, are based on bad facts. There's factual errors, there's misstatements. If you truly get into the details of our filing and understand what our plan calls for, that specific line will grow. It's not gonna shrink. It's not an overlapping track.
It doesn't go to Chicago. I would say that is, and you can expect this company to vehemently oppose that and certainly not concede to that. I don't think that when the facts are heard and the facts are ruled upon, that that's gonna carry the argument for one moment. That's gonna be a viable part of our network. It's part of our single line benefits that this transaction brings uniquely to the table and competition that it introduced. Again, that one I would say is very unreasonable, and I'm not concerned on that based on fact. You get to the other ones, you think about what's been asked for. You know, the NS is asking for additional rights up in Meridian and Fairway, which frankly, they're not currently contemplated in the JV agreement.
That was a negotiated agreement between the KCS and the NS back in 2006. Again, if you think about precedence, to use the transaction to gain advantage or to gain a better position, that you otherwise wouldn't benefit from, there's precedence around that. There are rules around that. There are laws around that. The BNSF, they're looking for trackage rights south of Laredo and from Clinton, Iowa, north of Sabula. Again, asks that have been asked for before. These facts don't change or create that fact. If it didn't make sense then, I can't understand how it might make sense now. Again, in the context of the settlement, we'll talk about reasonable asks and reasonable terms and reasonable outcomes. As long as it's reasonable for both parties, then we can get there.
If it's unreasonable, we're not going to be in a position to agree to it. Our pro-competitive facts don't indicate that we need to.
Okay. I appreciate the time. Thank you.
Next question will be from Benoit Poirier at Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you very much, and good afternoon, everyone. Gentlemen, given the congestion with the West Coast ports, Keith, do you see an increased interest for East Coast ports? Maybe for Pat, do you see an increased interest for Lázaro Cárdenas?
You know what? All those things speak to a case for all those potential outcomes. Those are all things that we're discussing at different stages of discussion with our steamship lines. You know, the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, obviously they're talking direct with KCS about that. What I know about it from my due diligence is it's a port built with a ton of capacity, deep water access. It can complement what's going on in L.A., Long Beach. It will never replace it. There's certainly business cases to be made looking at today's traffic, much less considering what nearshoring is going to bring in the future, that that's a viable port that should uniquely benefit this franchise. KCS today, CPKC in the future, assuming the STB approves our transaction. The same can be said for Port of Saint John.
You know, the Port of Saint John has a tremendous amount of capacity. As the crow flies from Tidewater to the key markets, the CP solution is the shortest route. In our best day, with the capacity, as long as they can handle it expeditiously and efficiently through the port, we've got a better product. That's exactly what we're selling. Again, when you have these discussions, the beauty of this now and in the future, assuming the STB approves our transaction, we now have three coasts, the triangle that is a powerful solution enabler, supply chain enabler for growth for our customers and for our stakeholders. That's all something we continue to be extremely excited about. Those messages and the art of the possible, it's exciting to those customers, too.
I see a perfect marriage coming for growth, and that's exactly why we're pursuing this transaction, and that's exactly why we're excited. There's something in it for everyone here. Pro competition, pro growth. Our employees get better paying jobs, more of those. Our customers, KCS customers, CP customers, and customers of tomorrow that neither of us might serve today all have an opportunity to benefit from what this unique transaction brings to the table that otherwise would not be possible. I believe to be the last major transaction, major combination and merger in the North American continent that will uniquely connect all three countries that at a beautiful time in a world where because of all those supply chain challenges, we need a solution like this. It's extremely compelling and all those conversations are following that narrative.
It just makes too much sense at a perfect time in history.
That's great. Thanks, Keith.
Thank you. We are now out of time. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Keith Creel. Please go ahead.
Okay. Well, listen, let me close by thanking you for your time this afternoon. I can tell you, as we look forward, obviously we're seized with, number one, running the railroad efficiently, safely for our customers. Throughout this process, we'll be running and participating, completing the merger application process in parallel with planning for integration of these two great companies so that when we do get a favorable outcome from the STB, which we hope for and anticipate, we'll be prepared to hit the ground running day one as seamlessly as possible and start to create all these unique benefits for all of our stakeholders that we've been so proudly talking about. That's what we'll be focused on the balance of 2022, and we look forward to sharing our second quarter results or first quarter results on the next call. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. This does conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect.