Argus honors CSX, Mosaic and Road and Rail Services with prestigious Win-Win Award

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May 24, 2012, 10:45 ET

HOUSTON, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Global energy price reporting agency Argus has named CSX Transportation, Mosaic and Road and Rail Services as the 2012 winners of its prestigious Win-Win Award in Argus Rail Business.

The companies received their award today at the North American Rail Shippers Association conference in Chicago in front of almost 300 representatives of railroads and their customers.

The annual honor is given to railroads, shippers and organizations that develop innovative partnerships leading to improved service, efficiency and other mutually beneficial service improvements.

"I am pleased to recognize excellence in the rail sector. The Win-Win Award is now in its 15th year and continues to celebrate partnerships between rail carriers and customers resulting in significant cost or service benefits," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said.

The latest award recognizes how all three parties developed an innovative solution that allows the shipper to increase its business significantly while reducing its carbon footprint. The railroad is able to move the trains more efficiently using one newer, high-horsepower locomotive instead of two, while at the same time moving longer trains.

"We all saw an opportunity to improve a broken process and we went after it," Mosaic project manager Nick Snapp said. "Together, we added value and made a quick impact on our bottom line."

"We are truly honored to receive the Argus Win-Win Award. This achievement is a direct reflection of the great partnership between CSX and Mosaic to grow profitable business, expand our reach and produce positive results together," CSX director of sales and marketing for phosphate and fertilizer Shantel Johnson said.

Mosaic expanded its capacity to move railcars to its facility in Bradley, Florida, putting 1.9mn tons a year (st/yr) of phosphate rock onto the railroad compared with only 700,000 st/yr moved before the project was completed, an increase of 1.2mn st/yr in 2011 compared with 2010.

The company benefited from less product loss and a higher level of safety from power-operated doors that replaced hand-operated railcar doors, eliminating a process that required employees to manually secure the railcar doors. The new doors used better seals to eliminate significant quantities of product lost in transit.

CSX invested in high-capacity, high-cube hoppers that increased the amount of phosphate that could be carried in every car to 112st from 100st. The twice-daily shuttle trains that operate the 15-mile route between Bradley and Bartow, Florida, were expanded to 35 railcars from 28 railcars, allowing more product to be moved between the sites and enabling an overall volume expansion at the plant. The increased efficiency eliminated all remaining truck shipments between the two sites, further reducing the carbon footprint of the operation and increasing its efficiency.

Road and Rail Services provided crews to operate the train within Mosaic's plant and performed the necessary pre-departure tests, allowing CSX and Mosaic to realize further efficiencies through faster service and more efficient crew utilization. The initial terminal testing allows the CSX train and engine crew to depart immediately after arriving at Mosaic's plant without having to wait to complete the inspections.

For further information, contact Tammy Tiedt in Houston at +1 713 429 6309 or email [email protected].

About Argus
Argus Media is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence, market data, consultancy and conferences on the global crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions, bioenergy, fertilizer and transportation industries. Argus energy and fertilizer prices are widely used by leading companies, governments and international agencies as benchmarks in supply contracts, risk management and planning.

Argus is headquartered in London and has more than 400 staff in offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Santiago, Bogota, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Dubai, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Porto, Brussels, Johannesburg and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company.