Railcar Makers Are Off Track
Shares of railcar manufacturers Trinity Industries (TRN), The Greenbrier Cos. (GBX), and FreightCar America (RAIL) declined over the last three months, as economic data showed the domestic economy was slowing in the second quarter. In particular, Trinity shares fell 34% since a February peak as concerns over a slowing domestic economy led to questions about demand for new rail cars.
Several quarters of strong new orders growth and rising industry backlogs helped set the stage for Trinity's 6% decline in railcar backlog at the end of the first quarter. More recently, Greenbrier reported its new railcar-manufacturing backlog at the end of May was 11,500 units, down from 12,500 units at the end of February. The latest data from the Association of American Railroads, which reports weekly rail traffic data, showed that for the first 27 weeks of 2012, combined North American rail volume is down 1.5% compared with the same point last year, but trailers and containers are up 4.4% on the same basis....432 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
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