GLG News by Railcar Market Experts (EU)

The railcar builders association, the ARCI, reported that in the third quarter, only 8,121 new railcars were ordered, bringing the total orders for the year to roughly 31,000 cars. Moreover, deliveries decreased to 15,032, bringing the year to date total to 48,296. At Rail Theory Forecasts, we had predicted...

    Coal prices delivered into Europe are currently above $100/tonne (metric ton) as measured by the API 2 Index. This is up approximately 50% from prices being quoted for this same period at the beginning of 2007.     The commentary that follows evaluates the...

Greenbrier’s surprise announcement that it will build new tank cars in the future for GE Rail Services was a bold and badly needed development for that railcar builder, but don’t anticipate much profit growth in the near future from this new venture. Demand for Greenbrier’s main car types, double-stack...

    Current delivered coal prices into Europe have crossed over the $100/tonne (metric ton) threshold as measured by the API 2 Index into Northern Europe. That is up ~50% from prices for this period quoted at the beginning of 2007.     The commentary discusses...

    The upgrade by Stifel Nicolaus & Co. of Massey Energy is representative of the bullishness in the U.S. coal sector. The commentary section discusses the positives in the coal sector.

Consol Energy’s acquisition of Tri-River Fleeting Harbor Services and Ti-River Marine towboat fleet continues its shrewd investment of Ohio River and Monongahela River assets. This follows Consol Energy’s 2006 acquisition of the Guttman Group Mon River and J.A.R. towboat and barge assets.

For most of this year, the week to week comparisons of carload and intermodal traffic in 2006 have been negative; but for the week ending September 27, 2007, the number of carloads reported was slightly higher than those reported for the same period in 2006. While the weekly comparisons have varied...

A Senate bill involving railroad regulatory matters, S.772 introduced on March 6, 2007, was recently approved by the Judiciary Committee and sent to the full Senate for consideration. Ostensibly, the bill would give other government agencies some regulatory control over railroad mergers, which would...

    As the article points out China’s demand for coal has impacted the global coal situation. This and other issues discussed below are bullish for US coal producers.

    The long-awaited Surface Transportation Board (STB) rate case decisions for coal transportation to captive BNSF Railway customers demonstrates it is nearly hopeless under the current process to successfully challenge a coal transportation rate.