North American railcar utilization higher than 99% and lease renewals of 80% helped drive a solid first-quarter 2022 for GATX. Net income and diluted EPS more than doubled, compared to the year-ago period.
At GATX, Rail North America’s 2021 “outperformance was driven by improving market conditions,” President and CEO Brian A. Kenney said during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 earnings announcement on Jan. 25; in addition to achieving “higher fleet utilization and a higher renewal success rate, we have now experienced six consecutive quarters of sequential increases in absolute lease rates,” he reported.
“We continue to see improvement across our global railcar leasing markets,” GATX Corp. President and CEO Brian A. Kenney said during a third-quarter 2021 earnings report on Oct. 21; he noted fleet utilization increased to 99.2% at quarter end for North America, and remained high at 98.1% for GATX Rail Europe.
For Chicago-based GATX Corp., net income from continuing operations for the first three months of 2021 came in at $36.5 million, or $1.02 per diluted share—down 22.67% from the prior-year period’s $47.2 million, or $1.33 per diluted share.
