Third-quarter revenues for rail car builder Trinity Industries were about half of what it reported for the same period last year.
Trinity said total revenues for the quarter were $557.4 million, compared with $1,154.6 million in the same quarter in 2008. Revenues for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2009, were $2.1 billion, compared with $3 billion in the same 2008 period. It posted net income of $23.2 million, down from $89.6 million in the same 2008 quarter.
Trinity said it bolstered its balance sheet in the past three months. It ended the July-September quarter with unrestricted cash of $545.4 million, up from $440.9 million at the end of June.
"Our businesses remained highly focused on obtaining orders that extend their production lines and reducing costs as they right-sized their capacity," said Timother R. Wallace, Trinity's chairman, president and CEO.
Trinity Rail shipped 1,630 cars in the latest quarter and took new orders for about 1,000 rail cars. It ended the period with an order backlog of about 3,160 cars worth $264 million.
Rail car building remained its largest business segment in the third quarter with $166 million in sales. The separate rail leasing unit took in $81.5 million, which was down about 60 percent from the same 2008 quarter.
The Dallas-based company is a major player in the rail car market but also has inland barge, energy and construction products businesses.
Revenues were $113.8 million in the third quarter of 2009 for the Inland Barge Group, compared with $160.6 million in the third quarter of 2008. Operating profit was $26.7 million, compared to $29.8 million in the same quarter of 2008. The barge unit received orders worth more than $110 million during the third quarter of 2009 and had a backlog of approximately $350 million as of Sept. 30, 2009.
The Energy Equipment Group posted revenues of $132.7 million in the third quarter of 2009, down from $184.5 million in the same quarter of 2008. The group produced operating profit of $16.2 million in the third quarter of 2009, down from $32.5 million in the same quarter of 2008. The order backlog for structural wind towers as of Sept. 30, 2009 totaled approximately $1.1 billion.
Revenues in the Construction Products Group totaled $146.3 million in the third quarter, a 27-percent decline from the same quarter in 2008. These businesses recorded an operating profit of $13.1 million in the third quarter of 2009, compared with $17.2 million in the third quarter of 2008.