FCA had its IPO in early 05 at $ 19 per share and in 06 the stock was at $ 78 at the peak of the secular boom
in coal car orders.
FCA's 80 % plus market share in the North American
coal car market is protected by high switching costs and 100 plus years of market share and technological dominance.
He has used strong words and imagery before to drive home points, including comparing cordons
of coal cars heading to power plants to the death trains of the Holocaust (because of the mass extinctions foreseen by many biologists should warming go unabated).
The same day in Northbrook, Ill., a sun kink caused 31
loaded coal cars on a Union Pacific Railroad train to derail on a trestle, destroying the bridge and falling onto the roadway below, killing two people.
It is highly unlikely that FCA will earn less than it did in the
last coal car cycle.
In addition, about 15 % of FCA's revenue comes from
non coal cars.
Interspersed with information about coal mining is the story of a 12 - year - old worker who
hauls coal cars with his favorite mule.
In 05 and 06 the replacement rate spiked above 3 % and some of the surplus
of coal cars were put into storage.
There are 250,000
coal cars in North America.
Coal cars will need to continue to travel longer distances to eastern ports as the mining of coal deposits in the Appalachian region declines and the activity in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana increases.
These 52 plants are expected to add 27,000 mega watts of capacity and will require about 20,000
coal cars.
There are signs that
the coal car market is bottoming out and that orders will pick up in 09.
Coal cars will need to travel longer distances to eastern ports as the mining of coal deposits in the Appalachian region declines and the activity in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana increases.
Only one company, Trinity Industries competes with FCA in
the coal car market.
The reason orders should be headed upwards include, a decreasing number of
coal cars in storage, many new utilities coming online, increased coal car loadings and increased domestic and international demand.
The largest, Manufacturing, accounts for about 70 % of revenues and produces most types of railcars, with the notable exception of
coal cars.
The train is comprised of a locomotive,
coal car, three wagons, and a caboose all of which can seat both young and old alike.
You can almost see as a vestige of train trestle and this is kind of a strange like
a coal car or something and you can see that he's transitioning into his more kind of iconic black and white works.
But
a coal car crushed the life from me In the darkness of that mine, In the darkness of that mine.
I have fond memories of putting my Little Kiddle dolls in
the coal cars on my brothers train platform.