FreightCar Targets Roanoke Cuts

FreightCar America is suspending work at a railcar plant in Roanoke, Va., local news services say, in a move that affects 210 workers.

FreightCar said it will halt production there after current orders are completed, and could extend the plant’s operating schedule if more orders come in, said the Roanoke Times.

The Chicago-based company also said its separate car plant at Danville, Ill., is not affected, the Times reported.

Local officials said the pending job cuts in Roanoke come on top of 120 FreightCar workers laid off earlier this year. The company opened that facility about four years ago.

FCA specializes in building aluminum coal-hauling railcars, but says both its Roanoke and Danville plants can produce varied car types with either aluminum or steel bodies.

Word of the plant suspension comes amid a sharp and prolonged downturn for rail freight traffic, which has forced North American shippers, car leasing firms and railroads to idle hundreds of thousands of railcars from their fleets.

FreightCar’s order backlog has shrunk from nearly 21,000 at the end of 2006 to just 9,315 a year later and 5,399 as 2008 drew to a close. And in the wake of the financial crisis that struck last autumn, the industry outlook is for overall car demand to worsen this year and next.

The company has been trying to cut costs and diversify. It closed a Johnstown, Pa., car plant last May, and has ventures in Brazil and India to help develop its foreign markets in addition to domestic sales.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.