Freightcar America Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
March 10, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: The company reported meaningful profitability and cash generation in 2025 — gross margin expanded ~260 bps, adjusted EBITDA per car rose ~10% year‑over‑year, and adjusted free cash flow was $31.4M (up ~45%), ending the year with $64.3M in cash.
  • Positive Sentiment: FreightCar completed the acquisition of Carli Railcar Components to expand its aftermarket and recurring‑revenue platform; aftermarket sales were ~$27.1M in 2025 and management expects Carli to contribute roughly $13M–$15M toward 2026 revenue.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management emphasizes operational flexibility and a visible near‑term pipeline — backlog of 1,926 railcars valued at $137.5M, four active production lines (quick activation of a fifth), and 2026 guidance of $500M–$550M revenue, 4,000–4,500 deliveries and $41M–$50M adjusted EBITDA with a stronger second half.
  • Negative Sentiment: Market headwinds persist as North American new‑build activity hit decade‑low levels (industry deliveries ~31,000 in 2025 vs. 42,000 prior year), creating near‑term demand uncertainty that could constrain volumes until replacement needs normalize.
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Earnings Conference Call
Freightcar America Q4 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Welcome to FreightCar America's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. For those of you participating on the conference call, there will be an opportunity for your questions at the end of today's prepared remarks. Please note, this conference is being recorded. An audio replay of the conference call will be available on the company's website within a few hours after the call. I would now like to turn the call over to Chris O'Day with Riveron Investor Relations.

Chris O'Day
Investor Relations Representative at Riveron

Thank you and welcome. Joining me today are Nick Randall, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Riordan, Chief Financial Officer, and Matt Tonn, Chief Commercial Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during this conference call relating to the company's expected future performance, future business prospects, or future events or plans may include forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Participants are directed to FreightCar America's Form 10-K for a description of certain business risks, some of which may be outside of the control of the company that may cause actual results to materially differ from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any duty to provide updates to our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Chris O'Day
Investor Relations Representative at Riveron

During today's call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most commonly directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release issued yesterday afternoon. Our earnings release for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 is posted on the company's website at freightcaramerica.com, along with our 8-K, which was filed at market close yesterday. With that, I will now turn it over to Nicholas Randall for opening remarks.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today. I'll start with a brief review of our full year performance and then share how we're thinking about the business moving into 2026. 2025 was a challenging year for the North American rail market, with industry new build rates at some of the lowest levels we've seen in more than a decade. While we continue to view this as a temporarily muted with underlying fundamentals remaining strong, we have positioned ourselves well to maintain resiliency in any market cycle. Against that backdrop, our focus for the year was on disciplined execution, profitability, and positioning the company for long-term success. We did just that, and I'm proud of how the team executed.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

We delivered significant margin expansion, generated $31.4 million in free cash flow, gained delivery market share across the markets we serve, advanced our tank car readiness, and lastly, expanded our aftermarket platform through the acquisition of Carli Railcar Components. Accomplishments that effectively strengthened our financial position and expanded our industry presence. For the year, both revenue and deliveries within our expected range, while our profitability improved meaningfully. Gross margin expanded over 260 basis points, and on a per-car basis, adjusted EBITDA rose approximately approaching 10% growth year-over-year, reflecting our diversified mix, improved operating leverage, and cost discipline across the platform. We also generated over $31 million of adjusted free cash flow, up approximately 45% year-over-year, reflecting our ability to translate earnings expansions into cash. I want to pause on that point because it's important.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

In what was a down year for the industry, we not only maintained but enhanced profitability and cash generation. That speaks to the progress we've made over the past several years, building a leaner, more flexible manufacturing footprint. In particular, our continued growth in conversion and retrofit programs reflects our focus on controlling the factors within our influence to drive profitable growth. These programs require meaningful engineering expertise, manufacturing flexibility, and disciplined operational execution, capabilities we've intentionally strengthened across our platform. By structuring our operations to support this level of complexity, we are able to deliver consistent margin performance and attractive returns even when new build volumes remain below long-term replacement levels. Throughout 2025, in addition to our customized solution in conversions, retrofits, and other specialized railcar programs, we gained share in new car deliveries across the markets we serve.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Further demonstrating how our commercial strategy continues to resonate with customers as our flexible manufacturing presence enables us to gain ground on multiple fronts. In addition, from an operational standpoint, our ability to drive performance improvements through programs like TruTrack, which focuses on driving consistency in quality, throughput, and cost execution, along with our broader operational initiatives, is working effectively to improve margins and production discipline. We continue to refine plant flow and production sequencing within our Castaños facility, driving improved throughput, better cost absorption, and greater margin consistency across our manufacturing lines. Importantly, these are structural improvements that make us fundamentally a more efficient and dynamic company that can flex our manufacturing capabilities to support our customers in any market condition. Next, we continue to execute on our strategic roadmap, advancing our vision of FreightCar America as a scaled integrated rail platform.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

During the fourth quarter, we completed the acquisition of Carli Railcar Components, a leading distributor of railcar components. This transaction expands our aftermarket capabilities, further diversifies our revenue mix, and broadens our reach across key regional footprints. Importantly, Carli represents our first acquisition in the aftermarket space and serves as a foundational step in building a more robust recurring revenue platform. The acquisition reflects our disciplined approach to capital allocation, prioritizing opportunities that are adjacent to our core manufacturing business, enhance our value proposition with our customers, and generate attractive returns relative to internal growth investments. With a strong balance sheet and cash generation, we are increasingly well-positioned to build on this momentum. We will continue to evaluate strategic value accretive opportunities, particularly within the aftermarket, and that are aligned with our core rail markets, deepen customer relationships, and enhance long-term returns on invested capital.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Additionally, we remain focused on progressing tank car readiness for this year's retrofit programs. As we had discussed previously, that readiness remains on schedule, and we are prepared to start shipments for our retrofit order in the back half of this year. While the larger opportunity lies in new builds, we view our fulfillment of this retrofit contract as a key step in achieving our longer-term goals. Looking ahead, we ended the year with a backlog of 1,926 railcars valued at $137.5 million, reflecting a diversified mix of conversion programs and new railcar builds, providing meaningful visibility into our 2026 production. Our near-term focus is on converting that backlog into profitable deliveries while maintaining the same discipline that defined our performance in 2025.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

As we move into 2026, our priorities remain clear, deliver consistent margin performance, generate strong free cash flow, continue expanding our aftermarket and tank capabilities, and deploy capital in a disciplined manner that enhances long-term returns. The operational progress we have made positions us well to execute against those priorities while maintaining flexibility in a dynamic market environment. We remain mindful of ongoing uncertainty in the railcar new build market as industry deliveries continue to run below long-term replacement levels. However, history has shown that prolonged underinvestment ultimately leads to a normalization of demand as fleets age and replacement needs reassert themselves. As I stated earlier, fleet fundamentals and end markets remain strong, and it's a matter of time before this course corrects.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

As that normalization occurs, FreightCar America is well-positioned with a flexible operating model, ample capacity, and a broader portfolio of offerings, and the financial strength to capitalize on emerging opportunities. In summary, 2025 was a year of progress despite a difficult market environment. We improved margins, generated strong cash flow, strengthened the balance sheet, and advanced our diversification strategy, positioning the company to grow both organically and inorganically as industry conditions evolve. With a disciplined commercial strategy, a lean and flexible operating model, and an efficient manufacturing footprint, we are well-positioned to adapt to changing conditions and deliver sustainable, profitable growth over the long term. With that, I'll turn it over to Matt to discuss the industry dynamics.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Thank you, Nick, and good morning, everyone. I'll provide some perspective on the industry environment and how we position the business commercially throughout 2025. As Nick mentioned, 2025 was a challenging year for the North American railcar market, with new build activity running well below historical replacement levels. Customers remain cautious, prioritizing capital discipline and fleet optimization over large-scale expansion. However, underlying fleet fundamentals remain intact with aging equipment and deferred replacement building across multiple car types. For the full year, we increased our delivery market share by nearly 300 basis points, even as total industry deliveries declined to approximately 31,000 railcars from 42,000 in the prior year, reflecting the strength of our commercial strategy, disciplined operational execution, and ability to align closely with customer needs.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Industry orders also moderated, with North American new railcar orders totaling approximately 20,000 units compared to roughly 25,000 in the prior year. Within this environment, we secured approximately 3,250 total orders, including roughly 2,500 new railcar orders, allowing us to maintain new car order share despite lower overall volumes. At the same time, the balance of our orders came from conversions, retrofits, and other specialized programs, underscoring that our commercial approach extends beyond traditional new builds. These customized projects require engineering expertise, detailed planning, and manufacturing flexibility, capabilities that meaningfully differentiate us in the market. By intentionally structuring our operations to support this complexity, we are able to both compete effectively in new car production and support demand with higher value specialized programs.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

This balanced strategy expands our addressable opportunities and supports profitable growth even when broader industry volumes remain below historical levels. As we move into 2026, backlog visibility provides a stable foundation entering the year. As Nick stated, we exited 2025 with a backlog of 1,926 railcars valued at $137.5 million, representing a diversified mix of conversion work and new car builds. Although backlog levels reflect the broader moderation in industry new car order activity, the composition remains balanced with a meaningful portion tied to specialized and conversion programs. In summary, our commercial strategy is working effectively to maintain order share despite industry headwinds, and we are maintaining the flexibility needed to support customers today appropriately while preparing for a normalization in demand.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

As a reminder, long-term replacement requirements across the North American fleet continue to suggest annual industry demand in the range of approximately 35,000-40,000 railcars, supported by aging equipment and mandated retirement thresholds. While timing remains uncertain, these structural drivers remain intact. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike to walk through the financial results in more detail. Mike?

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Thanks, Matt, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to begin with an overview of our full year 2025 financials and then share a few fourth quarter highlights. I am pleased to say that 2025 marked another year of strong profitability despite a challenging demand environment, underscoring the strength of our operational execution, favorable manufacturing cost structure, and an enhanced product mix. While our results were solid, industry-wide volume pressure continued to weigh on top line performance, reinforcing the importance of our ability to pivot and provide conversion, rebody, and retrofit programs for customers, as well as focus on margin discipline and cash generation.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

For the full year, we achieved revenues of $501 million on 4,125 units, representing for the full year was $44.8 million, representing a $1.8 million increase or a 4.2% improvement from 2024, effectively demonstrating our successful efforts to enhance profitability. Lease expenses previously classified with an interest expense will be recorded in cost of goods sold as a result of an accounting classification change for our Castaños lease. This change would have reduced our adjusted EBITDA by approximately $3.5 million in 2025 if it had occurred at the beginning of the year. The change has no impact on cash flow, operating income, net income or earnings per share.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Adjusted net income for the full year was $18.1 million or $0.50 per diluted share, accounting primarily for the impact of certain non-cash items, including a non-cash tax benefit of approximately $51.9 million we recorded in the second quarter due to the release of a valuation allowance on our deferred tax assets. This more than offsets the $32.2 million non-cash adjustment related to warrant liability, which fluctuates each quarter in line with changes in our share price, which as a reminder, solely reflects accounting for the warrant holders investment and does not impact our fully diluted share count. As we have mentioned in prior calls, we remain focused on enhancing cash generation.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

In 2025, we delivered $34.8 million in operating cash flow and free cash flow of $31.4 million, a 44.8% increase over the prior year. This strong cash generation further supports our balance sheet as we ended the year with $64.3 million in cash and provides us with the optionality to capitalize on future opportunities as they emerge. Turning to fourth quarter highlights. Consolidated revenues for the fourth quarter of 2025 totaled $125.6 million with deliveries of 1,172 railcars compared to $137.7 million on deliveries of 1,019 railcars in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

The year-over-year change was driven by delivering converted railcars in the fourth quarter of 2025 that carry a lower average selling price while the comparable 2024 period contained only newly manufactured railcar deliveries. Gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2025 was $16.8 million, with a gross margin of 13.4% compared to gross profit of $21 million and gross margin of 15.3% in the fourth quarter of last year. This year-over-year change primarily reflects mix impacts, partially offset by continued productivity improvements and cost discipline. SG&A for the fourth quarter of 2025 totaled $9 million compared to $9.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Excluding stock-based compensation, SG&A as a percentage of revenue increased approximately 50 basis points, driven by the heavier mix of conversion programs versus new car builds in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the prior year. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we achieved adjusted EBITDA of $10.4 million compared to $13.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting mix impacts across the comparable periods. For the fourth quarter of 2025, we reported a net loss of $16.6 million or $0.52 per share. This result includes $19.9 million of non-cash adjustments related to share appreciation accounting. Partially offset by a $2.1 million non-cash acquisition-related gain.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Excluding certain items, adjusted net income for the quarter was $4.9 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $8 million, or $0.21 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of last year. In 2025, capital expenditures totaled $3.4 million, reflecting disciplined investment that is consistent with our maintenance cycle. Supported by strong cash generation, we ended the year with $64.3 million of cash and cash equivalents and low net debt, operating at the low end of our targeted leverage range of approximately 1-2.5 times. Looking ahead, we expect capital spending to be $7 million-$10 million in 2026.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

This is comprised of maintenance level spending of approximately $4 million-$5 million, as well as spending to complete our previously announced investment to vertically integrate aspects of tank car manufacturing, reinforcing our measured approach to capital allocation. Importantly, with four production lines in place and the flexibility to activate a fifth line relatively quickly, we have embedded capacity within our existing footprint to flex as market conditions improve without requiring significant incremental capital investment. This allows us to focus on disciplined capital deployment towards initiatives that enhance long-term value. The acquisition of Carli Railcar Components is a strong example of our approach and represents an important step in scaling our aftermarket platform, which generates attractive returns for our shareholders. We also continue to advance our tank car retrofit capabilities in a measured manner, positioning the business to participate in adjacent opportunities as demand develops.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

As we look ahead, we will evaluate additional complementary opportunities that expand our platform and strengthen our revenue profile to further enhance the stability of our cash flows, support more consistent performance across market cycles, and drive long-term value for our customers and shareholders. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Nick to share our outlook for 2026.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Thanks, Mike. For the full year of 2026, we are forecasting revenues between $500 million and $550 million, up 4.8% year over year at the midpoint of the range. This expectation is based on expected deliveries between 4,000-4,500 rail cars, an increase of approximately 3% at the midpoint of the range. We expect adjusted EBITDA guidance between $41 million and $50 million for the full year, representing a year-over-year increase of 10.4% at the midpoint versus our lease-adjusted EBITDA for fiscal year 2025. We expect a stronger second half of the year cadence that will scale up to our guided numbers. With that, I'd now like to open up the line for Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Mark Reichman with Noble Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Thank you. The revenue guidance is $525 million at the midpoint. Now, the aftermarket business did about $27.1 million for the full year 2025. You made the Carli acquisition, which I'm assuming will contribute $13 million-$15 million. To kinda divide those two groups, is $40 million-$41 million an appropriate revenue estimate for the aftermarket business in your view?

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Hi, Mark, this is Mike. Yeah, I'd say that's a good view of what we would be expecting for 2026.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Then secondly, the interest expense was about $17.6 million for the full year, and so with this change with the lease, you know, that's about $3.5 million. Would you expect that interest expense to decline to kinda maybe $14 million-$15 million? How are you thinking about maybe paying down debt or reviewing, you know, the balance sheet capitalization?

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Mark, this is Mike again. Yeah, I think you're thinking about that right. There'll be the portion of interest expense that will now be in COGS, which would get you to about 13.5. I would expect that interest expense to go down a bit as we do have debt repayments we'll be making here in Q1 as part of our term loan. We'll see that keep getting a little lower and generating more free cash flow as we pay down debt and continue to work on our capital structure.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

It actually could be lower than, say, $14 million-$15 million for the full year 2026, it sounds like.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Correct.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Just lastly, on the free cash flow, you know, where you back out the purchase of property, plant, and equipment, is that $4 million-$5 million of maintenance capital, is that equivalent to purchase of plant, property, and equipment?

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Yes. Yes, that would be right there.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Okay. Great. Well, thank you very much.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Thanks, Mark.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Iva Priscilla with North Coast Research. Please proceed with your question.

Iva Priscilla
Analyst at North Coast Research

Hi, good morning. I am on the line today asking questions for Aaron Reed. My first question is, you talked about the margins expanding during the quarter. What extent of that was driven by mix? Was it just a higher proportion of higher margin cars, or was it more operational improvements or pricing?

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Hey, Iva. Good morning. This is Nick. There was obviously both those will influence it. Productivity is where we get the larger of the two enhancements in Q4. Obviously, you know, mix can vary quarter to quarter. Productivity is the one we really sort of drive to focus 'cause that repeats ongoing as we drive and bake those productivity improvements in. What we observed in Q4 was more primarily driven by productivity and operational improvements.

Iva Priscilla
Analyst at North Coast Research

All right. Perfect. Thank you. Also, in the guidance you provided, are tank car retrofit volumes included within that, or which should we think about those as incremental to the delivery outlook for 2026?

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

They are in there. We've previously committed before that that's a multi-year program, so it's not the full program is in 2026. There's a portion of the program is in 2026, then it rolls in through 2027 as well. It's in line with what we said in prior calls and the prior amounts, it's towards the back end of 2026 that program kicks in.

Iva Priscilla
Analyst at North Coast Research

Okay.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

It's not the entire program.

Iva Priscilla
Analyst at North Coast Research

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Yeah.

Iva Priscilla
Analyst at North Coast Research

Okay. All right. Thank you, guys.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Thanks. Thank you, Iva.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Brendan McCarthy with Sidoti. Please proceed with your question.

Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti

Great, good morning. I appreciate you taking my questions here. Just wanted to start off on your industry outlook. Yeah, I think you mentioned 31,000 deliveries in 2025. I have you about a 13.3% market share. For 2026, what's your outlook on industry deliveries and your corresponding market share?

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Brendan, good morning. Matt Tonn here. When we look at the overall industry, you know, we do believe that we'll see deliveries in the 25,000-30,000 range. Order activity will probably follow suit to what we saw in 2025. We are expecting some moderation of order activity with increases in activity as we get into the second half of the year.

Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti

Understood. I appreciate that. That might, I think according to my rough math, that might put your market share closer to, you know, 15%-16%. Is that accurate? What would drive that, you know, uptick there from 25, 2025?

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Yeah, your numbers are accurate for how we track it. I would say this about the overall market. Our differentiation and our approach to the market is one of collaboration with customers where they find value in what we bring with engineering expertise capabilities, not only on the new car front, but also on the conversion retrofit front. We see opportunities for growth in both of those areas in the marketplace.

Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti

Understood. I appreciate that detail. Breaking down the 2026 guidance a little bit, what assumptions would really cause deliveries to come in at the low end of 4,000 in 2026? On the other side, what would cause deliveries to come in, you know, at the high end around 4,500?

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

I'll start with that one, and then Matt can probably fill some additional details in there. I don't know if you recall this time last year, we talked about uncertainty in the outlook for the year would favor us given our agility and our ability to convert orders reasonably quickly and be able to bring things into the pipeline and all the value proposition we have. That's what transpired to be true. We gained market share last year despite a prevailing backdrop of sort of reduction across the industry. I expect to be similar this year, where customers are facing any level of uncertainty, we're able to offer some certainty on the timing and the agility and the response times to builds.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

As Matt says, not just new builds, but on conversions and rebodies as well, where that may be a better alternative for a customer rather than an outright new car. I think that's what the main drivers are gonna be. You know, this time last year, there was a lot of uncertainty around tariffs. We answered those questions on we're fully USMCA compliant. A lot of our end users have now got answers on questions that they didn't have last year regarding to tariffs and inputs and outputs across the freight network. We've got some uncertainty more recently on oil prices, et cetera. Generally, oil prices, if they're sustained higher for a bit longer, typically favor rail.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

There's a number of macroeconomics which I think will definitely favor the back half of this year for rail car demand, and we expect to see that just on, you know, seasonal timings such as harvests and various product deliveries, which need a freight rail. If oil prices stay high, you would expect to see more things move to rail due to the pure economics of the freight efficiency. The underlying progress of, you know, the rail industry, the metrics are pretty decent for that industry. The velocity is pretty good, the utilization is pretty good, so it's a reasonably healthy industry propping that up. Which would imply that this is more pent-up demand as opposed to demand that's being deferred indefinitely.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

A lot of those things, you know, really sort of go into our thought process of how we look at that forecast. The forecast is, as you mentioned on unit volume is, it doesn't take into account whether it's a rebody or it's a new car, it's still a unit. I think that's where we've got some confidence in that, in the amount of units we can ship. The deliberation will be whether it's a new or a retrofit car, and that can be obviously dictated by a number of different macroeconomics. Matt, anything I missed on that?

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

One other comment. Majority of what we talk about in the industry right now is replacement demand. It's certainly the cycle that we're in. However, we play in multiple market segments where there is new business demand that derives the need for new railcars. Oftentimes that new business is tied to infrastructure build out and permitting. At times those can be accelerated or delayed. When we look at that gap of 4,000-4,500, a lot of it, you know, a lot of that gap is tied to the timing in which those infrastructure improvements are completed and the demand for the cars are known and permitting. We're in a really good position with those particular segments. It's just a matter of time.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Will those fall into 2026 in the latter part of the year or maybe push into early 2027?

Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti

Understood, really appreciate the color there. As it relates to your capabilities in, you know, rebuilds and retrofits, what are you seeing as far as demand goes? It seems like, you know, order flow picked up there in 2025 from 2024. Are you seeing relatively higher demand there on that front, just maybe considering some of the economics around the new build market?

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Yeah, we do because it does offer customers, you know, significant price savings and value of the rail asset. A lot of it is tied to the existing railcar underutilized assets that are what we call the donor cars that are used in the conversion process. We do believe that the demand for conversions is longstanding, and we continue to operate in the marketplace to develop those opportunities as those inquiries come in.

Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti

Got it. Last question from me, just on the backlog, just, you know, entering 2026, where the current backlog level is, as well as considering your outlook for deliveries of, you know, 4,250 at the midpoint. It seems like the backlog covers a smaller portion of that, compared to recent years. What can investors, you know, what can we take away from there as we look into 2026?

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

There's a couple of things. One is, you know, we've done a lot of work on leaning out our operations, and that translates into the productivity improvements you saw in Q4 as in financial productivity improvements in Q4. What that allows us to do is be a lot more agile in our manufacturing footprint and take opportunity to retool or rebuild lines to be more optimized in quieter periods, and then have them be able to scale up capacity without significant infrastructure during busier periods. We're able to respond to those market dynamics in a way that doesn't require major infrastructure changes, which I think is a benefit to us. That's what we referred to last year in our ability to sort of capture that.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

We do believe that the back half of this year will be the busier half for shipments. A couple of reasons for that is similar to last year, we may build items in Q2, and then we ship prebuilt and built items in Q3 and Q4. You just see those delivery dynamics go through that way. You often see with our customers the way they pre-approve their large capital expenditures, their order placement may drift towards the end of Q4 into Q1. Sort of this time of year, late Q1 into Q2 as those CapEx approvals come through, and we populate those into our pipeline.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

We've deliberately constructed and built our infrastructure to take that sort of uncertainty from the marketplace, but then to turn it into a strength that we can respond with agility and to the customer's needs and be able to run multiple capacity levels concurrently on different lines. When one product is in demand, we can ramp up that productivity on that line and then wind down on a different line if demand isn't there in that particular period of time. A lot of that work that translates to productivity is being able to accommodate those sort of customer cycles that come through and being able to still offer that guidance on shortened lead times and shortened prep times from customers. I just on the order gestation period can be a long period.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

What we talk about is booked orders, so obviously we have visibility prior to it being booked. I think Matt mentioned before, you know, there's some projects where it may be permitting or it may be something which is just a trigger point that's gonna convert to an order. We can have a sense of visibility and security around order placement, which is pre-book, but we only communicate to actually booked orders, which is where we're able to give a confidence on our guidance, which may not have the fully booked commitment behind it, but we have the work and the process and the pipeline that supports it, both internally and with our customer discussions, if that makes sense.

Brendan McCarthy
Brendan McCarthy
Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti

That makes sense. That, that's helpful. Thanks, Nick. That's all for me.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is a follow-up from Mark Reichman with Noble Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Thank you. First, I just wanted to ask about the industry. I mean, you know, it seems like the orders and deliveries have kind of lagged by choice. I mean, you have the tariff uncertainty, there's economic uncertainty, but the hope is that we get to a past replacement cycle. I was just wondering, you know, it's not like the industry's out there, you know, all using new equipment or don't need the equipment. Is there a metric that you look at? I mean, can you look at like retirements versus deliveries, you know, to try to get an indication of when you might expect orders to accelerate, you know, in terms of, you know. Is that 40,000?

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Do we think that that's a good number, or are there some structural dynamics that, you know, where they're either because of different types of cars are doing more with less, that might suggest either a lower or higher number?

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Yeah, Mark, you look at the mandated age of a rail car for retirement is 50 years. You can back that up with some certainty on the builds in the late 1970s and into the early 1980s to understand what's going to fall out. Some of those cars have already fallen out, but many of them are still operational. Depending on which forecaster you look at, somewhere between 150-200,000 rail cars are going to fall out in retirement over the course of the next four years. With some certainty, we can look at that metric to understand what cars, what car types are gonna require replacements in that timeframe. There's some differences when we look at capacities.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

You have higher capacity cars today, both in cubic capacity and in gross rail load. Overall, it's a pretty good indicator of what we see that will fall out. Of course, we monitor the new car opportunities based on market segments and growth in various markets where the new rail demand is required.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

You're pretty well-positioned across the cycle because you have a pretty healthy conversion business, and you can do rebodies, and you've got the parts business. Now, when I look at just margins, so in the manufacturing segment, you know, margins were about 12.2%, you know, 13.5% for the year. We're kind of assuming 13.5% in 2026. The aftermarket business was 33.6% in the fourth quarter, just under 35% for the full year. I mean, do you think those—do you see any items kind of affecting your margins in 2026 relative to 2025?

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Mark, this is Mike. I think for a manufacturing segment, I think that's a good basis to go on into 2026 based on the pipeline and mix we see. I think it'll be pretty similar. On the aftermarket, I think, you know, as we integrate our acquisition and move down the line, we should see some accretive generation there and some enhanced margin, but that will probably be a little more towards the back half of 2026 going into 2027 as we continue to scale that business.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Okay. Then just lastly, if you could just remind me, I think the orders for fourth quarter were like 348. Just how long does it take for these orders to convert into deliveries?

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

You're correct on the order volume. It can take anywhere from a year down to days. It sort of depends on the customer, the need, the planning of that particular customer. I will tell you, though, that, you know, as Nicholas mentioned, our ability to pivot and meet customer needs based upon the flexibility, operational excellence of the plant allows us to be able to meet customers' needs very quickly and in short lead times.

Mark Reichman
Mark Reichman
Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets

Okay, great. Well, that answers all my questions. Thank you. Very helpful.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Thanks, Mark.

Mike Riordan
Mike Riordan
CFO at FreightCar America

Thank you.

Matt Tonn
Matt Tonn
Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America

Thanks, Mark.

Operator

I am not showing any further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Nicholas Randall for any further remarks.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Thank you. 2025 was a year of disciplined execution and resilience despite one of the weakest North American new build markets in more than a decade. We expanded margins, gained share in markets we serve, and delivered strong cash generation. Gross margin improved meaningfully, up 260 basis points, and adjusted EBITDA increased, reflecting mix improvements, operating leverage, and cost discipline. We continue to generate strong free cash flow of $31 million, up 45% year-over-year, and ending the year with over $64 million of cash and low net leverage. We are making strategic progress to strengthen our platform through the completed acquisition to bolster our aftermarket business and remain on track in advancing our tank retrofit readiness program.

Nicholas Randall
Nicholas Randall
President and CEO at FreightCar America

Looking ahead, we are positioned for continued success in 2026 with a strong year-end backlog, strong free cash flow generation, and a balance sheet to drive durable growth. With that, thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a great day.

Analysts
    • Brendan McCarthy
      Equity Research Analyst at Sidoti
    • Chris O'Day
      Investor Relations Representative at Riveron
    • Iva Priscilla
      Analyst at North Coast Research
    • Mark Reichman
      Senior Research Analyst at Noble Capital Markets
    • Matt Tonn
      Chief Commercial Officer at FreightCar America
    • Mike Riordan
      CFO at FreightCar America
    • Nicholas Randall
      President and CEO at FreightCar America
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