Railway Age published two articles a few days ago, both of which appear to show encouraging signs about the railcar marketplace. The first is regarding GATX Corp. and is as follows:
- “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.
- “In North America, GATX’s fleet utilization increased to 99.2% at quarter end and our renewal success rate was 84%,” President and CEO Brian A. Kenney said. “Absolute lease rates across the majority of our fleet increased for the fifth quarter in a row, while the third-quarter renewal lease rate change of GATX’s Lease Price Index was in line with our expectations at negative 8.1%.
The second article was regarding Trinity Industries, and included the following:
- “While market activity continues to improve, Trinity’s third-quarter results were negatively impacted by labor shortages and turnover as well as supply chain disruptions, diluting the impact of margin improvement initiatives in the Rail Products Group,” President and CEO Jean Savage said during a Oct. 21 earnings announcement.
- While Trinity Industries’ Rail Products Group was “challenged” in third-quarter 2021, the Railcar Leasing and Management Service Group had “another quarter of strong performance, and we maintain our view that market fundamentals for railcar leasing should continue to ramp up into 2022,” President and CEO Jean Savage said on Oct. 21.
Let’s hope the hopeful comments regarding the future from these two important players in the marketplace bear fruit.