CN’s financial performance dipped in 2020

In 2020, CN generated a total revenue of just over 13.8 billion Canadian dollars and, for that same year, the company reported about nine billion Canadian dollars in operating expenses. Both revenue and expenses dipped between 2019 and 2020, as a result of the drop in demand during the first quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The company formerly operated a mix of freight and passenger services until the late 1970s but is now primarily a freight railway. The company’s rail freight revenue amounted to around 13.2 billion Canadian dollars in 2020. CN operates a supply-chain model that offers integrated shipping solutions which include rail, intermodal, trucking, freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution. Intermodal accounts for the largest part of CN’s freight revenue by commodity group.

The Canadian leader of the market

While the American BNSF was the overall leading North American railroad company, CN was the main Canadian railway company in North America. In 2020, it dwarfed its main competitor Canadian Pacific Railway by over six billion Canadian dollars more in revenue. Transporting close to 5,600 carloads across its network, CN was also the fifth leading North American company based on carloads transported across its network. The company's financial impact extended beyond the region. It was the second largest railway company worldwide in May 2020, worth around 58.8 billion U.S. dollars in market value. The company also employed over 23,700 people for its operations, making it an important employer in the Canadian railway industry.

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