The Greenbrier Companies, Lake Oswego, Oregon-based railroad freight car manufacturers, announced Friday that they have recently received orders for 2,000 new railcars with an aggregate value of approximately $135 million.
The new orders are for covered hopper cars of various types, which are scheduled to be delivered principally in calendar 2011. The orders were received in November and December, and are in addition to the previously disclosed orders for 3,200 railcars with an aggregate value of approximately $200 million received in September and October, subsequent to the Company's August 31, 2010 fiscal year end. The Company's August 31, 2010 new railcar manufacturing backlog was 5,300 units valued at $420 million.
To support the increase in demand, the Company intends to ramp up its production rates commencing in January 2011, and open an additional production line late in the second calendar quarter of 2011. Based on current production plans and scheduled delivery dates, new railcar deliveries are expected to be significantly higher in the second half of the current fiscal year than the first half.