Domestic News
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Traffic for the week ending Feb. 13 came in at 480,483 carloads and intermodal units, a 0.3% increase vs. the same week last year. Continuing the trend, the week’s intermodal volume of 269,063 containers and trailers was up 6.9%, lifting total traffic, as carloads of 211,420 were down 7%. |
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FreightCar America, Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Terence R. Rogers as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer, effective February 15, 2021. Mr. Rogers has been serving as Interim Chief Financial Officer since January 2021, leading all the finance activities of the Company including business planning, budgeting, forecasting, treasury and information technology. |
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The physics involved in operating a freight train are amazingly complicated. Think about it: Thousands of tons of metal rolling on steel wheels over steel rail at speeds up to 80 mph over a variety of terrain and grades in all kinds of weather. |
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Railcar manufacturer and lessor TrinityRail announced earlier this year it would streamline the awards program to recognize one Direct Supplier and one Indirect Supplier, rather than selecting premium suppliers within each of its commodity and logistics services groups, according to Miner. To earn the award, Miner said it exceeded annual on-time delivery requirements (greater than 90% OTD over the year) and quality expectations (DPPM under its control limit every month); actively participated in supply chain initiatives; worked on cost reduction initiatives; and collaborated on new product development projects. |
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Wabtec also issued 2021 financial guidance. Wabtec’s total, multi-year backlog at the end of December 2020 was $21.6 billion, which was higher than at Sept. 30 as OEM and after-market orders increased in both Freight and Transit, according to the company. |
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Arctic air is pouring into most of the lower 48 states, extending as far south as Texas and even Mexico. While snow and ice have made it difficult to get trains over the road, the real culprit of this storm is the bitterly cold temperatures in areas that are not used to this type of weather. |
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Lumber prices have shot to fresh records, defying the normal winter slowdown in wood-product sales in a sign that the pandemic building boom is bowling into 2021. Records have been set across species, products and grades, according to pricing service Random Lengths. |
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The U.S. economy’s recovery picked up as consumers used stimulus checks to boost retail spending in January to its largest increase in seven months, a significant jump that comes as manufacturers continued to increase output and employers resumed hiring. The latest positive signs came on Wednesday when the government said retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, at restaurants and online, jumped a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in January from a month earlier, and manufacturing output neared pre-pandemic levels. |
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Technology and carbon footprint gaps between Class I railroads eventually could be a catalyst for a merger of two of the big North American rail systems, Canadian National CEO JJ Ruest says. Any merger involving two of the big six Class I systems would have to address competition issues through reciprocal switching or some other mechanism that would provide shippers with better commercial access to two railroads, Ruest told an investor conference today. |
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Bitter cold and strong winter storms could impact rail operations over the next several days, according to service advisories from several U.S. Class I railroads. FreightWaves’ latest weather report on the wintry conditions and the impact on rail and trucking is available here. |
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A deep freeze that hit Texas over the weekend wrought more havoc on the U.S. energy sector on Tuesday, curbing output in the largest U.S. oil field, knocking out a fifth of the nation’s refining capacity, and shutting a key shipping channel in Houston. Historic cold has knocked out roughly 4 million barrels per day of refining capacity, more than one-fifth of national capacity, according to Reuters calculations. |
International News
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Saudi Arabia plans to increase its oil output in the coming months, reversing a recent big production cut, say advisers to the Kingdom, a sign of growing confidence over an oil-price recovery. The world’s largest oil exporter surprised oil markets last month when it said it would unilaterally slash 1 million barrels a day of crude production in February and March in an effort to raise prices. |
