Introducing www.railwaywomen.org
The League of Railway Women (LRW) has launched its new website, www.railwaywomen.org, commensurate with it official name change from the “League of Railway Industry Women.”
Finance/Leasing
Cowen: Railcars “robust,” locos “rebounding”
Inquiries and orders for new railcars remain robust, with strength in tank cars, intermodal equipment, box cars and steel gondolas, and the locomotive new-build market appears set for a gradual rebound, report Cowen and Co. Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl, and Cowen Vice President Matt Elkott from the firm’s annual Transportation Conference. “This reinforces our confidence in our 3Q18 forecast of 20,500 units in industry orders,” they said. CBR (crude by rail) could enjoy relative strength through 2022. We continue to favor Wabtec, Trinity, Greenbrier, and ARI.”
Tank railcar market continues to evolve
Financial Edge, September 2018: According to the good people at Railinc (a perennial speaker at the annual Rail Equipment Finance Conference, www.railequipmentfinance.com), as of July 1, 2018, 12,581 tank railcars had been retrofit to the DOT117R standard. In the first seven months of 2018, 5,349 tank railcars were retrofit (an average of 764 per month). If retrofits continue at the same pace for the remainder of the year, the total number of retrofit cars completed in 2018 would be more than double the total number of retrofits completed by the end of 2017.
Greenbrier names Tekorius COO
The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Lorie Tekorius has been appointed EVP and Chief Operating Officer, a newly created position with expanded responsibilities, reporting to Chairman, President and CEO William A. Furman.
GBW Railcar Services uncouples
The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. and Watco Cos. LLC have agreed to discontinue their GBW Railcar Services (GBW) railcar repair joint venture, formed in 2014 by combining their shops into a nationwide network of railcar repair facilities. Under the agreement, the repair shops and employees at each location will return to management by their previous operators.
Wallace to head FreightCar America leasing arm
FreightCar America, Inc. has named Dan Wallace as Vice President and General Manager, Leasing.
Freight car market: Strength in numbers
Mostly solid quarterly financial results and a spate of new orders for freight car builders show a market that’s stable and growing.
The Andersons acquiring FreightCar America Danville plant
The Andersons Inc. on Aug. 1 signed a $2.2 million agreement to purchase FreightCar America Inc.’s Danville Railcar Facility, Danville, Ill. The company intends to turn the now-shuttered freight car manufacturing plant into a full-service freight and tank railcar repair shop.
Railcar orders, backlog soar: KeyBanc
Freight car order, delivery and backlog statistics for 2Q18 show that orders increased sequentially to 23,788 cars from 10,348 in 1Q18, the largest quarterly figure since 4Q14. Carbuilders delivered 13,071 units in the quarter, nearly identical to 1Q18’s 13,098. The backlog stands at 65,161 railcars, up 18% from 1Q18’s 55,216 cars; this implies “a net cancellation of 772 railcars, consisting primarily of gondolas and medium-cube covered hoppers,” according to analysis conducted by KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Railcar demand “net neutral”: Cowen survey
The results of Cowen and Company’s 2Q18 Rail Equipment Survey “are mixed and largely neutral on the balance,” reports Cowen analyst Matt Elkott. “Shippers’ level of certainty about ordering railcars increased, but order sizes decreased.”