#1  
Old 29-Jun-2004, 14:54
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 133
Home Country: China
Native Language: Chinese
Current Location: China
Member Type: English Teacher
Default What does "the carrying costs" mean?

Dear teachers,

Please look at the following paragraph:

Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be hit with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortunes, still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the $10.2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year. Conrail’s net railway operating income in 1996 was just $472 million less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who’s going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market.

What does "the carrying costs" mean?
How much does it account for the transaction?

Thanks

PS the sentence may be like this:
Conrail’s net railway operating income in 1996 was just $472 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction.

I mean there is probably the comma, but I am not sure, anyway, my question is what "the carrying costs" are?

Thanks again
  #2  
Old 29-Jun-2004, 18:52
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 727
Default

overall operating expenses
  #3  
Old 30-Jun-2004, 10:35
Member
Threadstarter  
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 133
Home Country: China
Native Language: Chinese
Current Location: China
Member Type: English Teacher
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by twostep
overall operating expenses
Are you sure?
I doubt it.
Is the operating cost more than $500m? Is it such expensive?
I always suspect "carrying cost" is an economic jargon.
  #4  
Old 30-Jun-2004, 12:31
Casiopea's Avatar
VIP Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 12,971
Member Type: Other
Default Re: What does "the carrying costs" mean?

Conrail’s net railway operating income in 1996 was just $472 million less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Investor Words
The charges a lender imposes on a business for lending money, in the form of interest, finance charges, and processing fees.
Source

All the best,
  #5  
Old 01-Jul-2004, 21:40
MikeNewYork's Avatar
VIP Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 6,073
Member Type: Academic
Default Re: What does "the carrying costs" mean?

Quote:
Originally Posted by japanjapan
Dear teachers,

Please look at the following paragraph:

Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be hit with a round of huge rate increases. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortunes, still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the $10.2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year. Conrail’s net railway operating income in 1996 was just $472 million less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who’s going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market.

What does "the carrying costs" mean?
How much does it account for the transaction?

Thanks

PS the sentence may be like this:
Conrail’s net railway operating income in 1996 was just $472 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction.

I mean there is probably the comma, but I am not sure, anyway, my question is what "the carrying costs" are?

Thanks again
I agree with Cas's answer. It refers to the cost of the financing, not the purchase itself. The sentence could be correct with or without the comma, but the meanings are very different.

Without the comma, Conrail's income was 472 million dollars less than half of the carrying charges.

With the comma, Conrail's income was 472 million dollars. This 472 million dollars was less than half of the carrying charges.

Because of the way it is written and particularly because of the word "just", it is likely that the comma version was intended. :wink:
Closed Thread

Bookmarks

Tags
quotthe, carrying, costsquot, mean


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
"the going gets tough, the tough gets going" phalkun English Idioms and Sayings 8 02-Nov-2007 14:37
"same " or "the same" Cicily21 Ask a Teacher 3 24-Sep-2004 15:22
What does "[u]the bottome line [/u]" mean ? Anonymous Ask a Teacher 1 18-May-2004 13:03
for carrying navi tasan Ask a Teacher 3 13-Sep-2003 18:34
about the usage of "the other" Anonymous Ask a Teacher 3 06-Apr-2003 12:33


All times are GMT. The time now is 07:29.



Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO ©2011, Crawlability, Inc.