For second-quarter 2021, FreightCar America, Inc. said it has attained its third consecutive quarter of positive gross margin and first quarter of manufacturing operating income since 2018 and has raised its 2021 delivery outlook for the second time, and announced plans to add two additional production lines at its Castaños, Mexico plant within one year.
Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono and Financial Editor David Nahass recently spoke with FreightCar America, Inc. President and CEO Jim Meyer about the efforts to turn the historic, 120-year-old company around by consolidating manufacturing in Mexico and positioning it to meet the needs of the market.
“We are already seeing the early benefits of moving our manufacturing footprint” to Mexico, FreightCar America, Inc. (FCA) President and CEO Jim Meyer said during the company’s first-quarter earnings report, noting “the leverage from our new operations and cost structure will serve us well in the improving market.”
FreightCar America, Inc. (FCA) reported its fourth-quarter 2020 results on March 24, including revenue of $60.6 million, up 35% year-over-year on deliveries of 477 railcars.
FreightCar America (FCA) has reported its third-quarter 2020 results, including consolidated revenues of $25.2 million on deliveries of 163 railcars—a 38% drop from the year-earlier period’s $40.7 million on deliveries of 467 railcars—as the industry “remains in a cyclical downturn, which was intensified by the pandemic.” The company continues to move all railcar production to its new Mexico facility by early 2021.
FreightCar America now owns 100% of Castaños Mexico, where all of its future railcar manufacturing is expected to be based by February 2021. It has completed the acquisition of the remaining 50% of its joint-venture partnership with Fasemex (Fabricaciones y Servicios de México).
FreightCar America says it has completed key steps in its “manufacturing repositioning and business transformation strategy,” which includes closing its Shoals facility in Cherokee, Ala., by first-quarter 2021, and starting railcar shipments from a new production facility in Castaños, Mexico, by the end of 2020.
In the two weeks following Cowen and Company’s mid-September Transportation and Sustainable Mobility Conference, analyst Matt Elkott, with input from colleagues Adam Kramer and Jason Seidl (Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor), noted that railcar inquiries “have ticked up. While translation into orders may not yet be commensurate with inquiries due to election and pandemic uncertainty, there appears to be an improvement in underlying demand” that should carry forward into a recovery in 2021.
According to a report from WDBJ7 in Roanoke, Va., FreightCar America will soon wrap up the last of its production orders at its Roanoke facility.
RAILWAY AGE at RAILWAY INTERCHANGE 2019: FreightCar America is on hand at Railway Interchange 2019 with its new Coil Covers and Diamond Forged Knuckle.