Evraz plc has invited proposals for the acquisition of its North American subsidiaries which supply steel to the rail, energy, industrial and construction markets. A greenfield rail production facility is under construction for completion by 2023. The Russian steel group said the sale would ‘unlock the stand-alone value of the North America business.’ The process is being conducted under a UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation licence, and any transaction would be subject to regulatory and corporate approvals and applicable sanctions laws.
On July 29 Robert A Pietrandrea retired as President of Railroad Development Corp and Vice-Chairman of the Hawthorne Group, a diversified holding company representing the business interests of the Posner, Wright and Pietrandrea families. Hawthorne Group President and RDC CFO John Hensler said ‘serving as “the brakes” to Henry Posner III’s “throttle”, Bob helped co-found RDC and led its unexpected transformation from start-up to major player in international railway privatisations and owner of the finest Class II railroad in North America, the Iowa Interstate. Throughout his time at RDC, Bob was the steady hand navigating the company through its many challenges and pitfalls.’
Real-Time Innovations, DB Netz, Duagon, NS, SBB, Siemens Mobility, SNCF Voyageurs, SNCF Réseau, SYSGO, Thales and Wind River have jointly developed a first version of a specification for an API between railway applications and the Safe Computing Platform, and published it in OCORA Release 2. This includes a general definition of the concepts, key design paradigms for safe communication and computation, and implementation guidelines.
FreightCar America reports Q2 2022 revenues of $56·8m, up 52·0% year-on-year, with the delivery of 468 wagons; planned line changeovers temporarily curtailed production. The company recorded a gross margin of 11·6% with gross profit of $6·6m and manufacturing operating income of $4·9m and adjusted EBITDA of $2·3m. The quarter-end backlog totalled 2 972 wagons with an aggregate value of approximately $320m.
Trane Technologies has appointed Dwayne Cowan as Brussels-based President of its refrigerated transport technology business Thermo King EMEA and Global Marine, Air & Rail from August 1. He succeeds Francesco Incalza, who has returned to the USA as Vice-President of Audit Services.