GLG News by Rail Car Leasing Experts

The Wall Street Journal article of Mar 22 proclaimed that railcar builders can expect a soft landing when falling from the 75,000 railcar delivery rate posted in 2006. The writer quoted forecasters who expect to see deliveries of 69,000 railcars in 2007 and close to that number for the next few years....

The labor union at the Nova Scotia plant of the Greenbrier Corp had already rejected the company’s request for contract concessions and a three year freeze on wages and was set to strike when government officials asked for a postponement in order to arrange a meeting involving government, union, and...

The USDA projected that 50% more corn will be used to make ethanol next year, rising from 2.15 billion bushel in 2007 to 3.2 billion bushels in 2008. The White House wants the US use of ethanol to grow to 35 billion gallons per year by 2017, compared to the 4 billion gallons burned in 2005 and...

The FRA recently refused to guarantee the $ 2.3 billion loan needed by the DM&E Railroad to extend its lines into the Powder River Basin coal producing area. The FRA stated that the size of the loan and the financial resources of the company created doubt that the railroad could pay back the loan....

Freightcar America (FCA) rolled our the first of 1,200 stainless steel/aluminum (hybrid) body coal cars for Norfolk Southern (NS) in Roanoke VA this week, building the car in a recently opened shop where NS used to build their own coal cars. The cars will replace aging cars in the NS fleet and will...

So Bear Stearns thinks that the railroads are about “mid-cycle” (his term.) But what does this mean: halfway up or at the top and about to start on the downward side again? Edward Wolfe said that the reason for the current strength is a “more diversified freight mix and greater operating efficiency.”...

The spokesperson for GM was right when she said that it would cost more than $150 in parts to allow cars to use either straight gasoline or E-85, an 85% gasoline/ethanol mixture. Moreover, the US automakers are also right to be skeptical about making investments to produce flex-fuel cars if there is...

GATX Corp. (GTM) announced that the utilization rate for their fleet of railcars (i.e., the percentage of units actually under lease and earning revenue) was up 1% in 2006 from the 98% rate achieved in 2005. Most railcar leasing companies think they are doing well anytime rates are above 95%, so the...

The growth in ethanol production looked unstoppable last summer when gasoline prices were above $250 per gallon and corn prices were below $2.32/bu. Entrepreneurs building 110 million gallon per year plants expected to recover their investments within 18 months when net profits were over $1.00 per gallon,...

A committee of companies, the Union Pacific Railroad, Union Tank Car, and Dow Chemical, representing their respective industries, agreed to a procedure under the auspices of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), to address the safety issues relating to tank cars, especially those handling Toxic...