Freightcar America, Inc.

Welcome to Frightcar America's first quarter 2024 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 comments. 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 this call. I would now like to turn the call over to Chris Audet with Riveron Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and welcome. Joining me today are Nick Randall, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Reardon, Chief Financial Officer, and Nat Tan, Chief Commercial Officer. I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during the 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 Frey Car America's Form 10-K for a description of certain business risks, some of which may be outside of the control of the company and 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. During today's call, there will also be a discussion of some items that do not conform to the U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release issued yesterday afternoon. Our earnings release for the first quarter of 2024 is posted on the company's website, afraidcaramerica.com, along with the AK, which was filed yesterday after market. With that, let me now turn the call over to Nick for opening remarks.

Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today. I would like to begin by saying how pleased I am to join you for my first earnings call as president. and CEO of Freight Car America. I would like to recognize Jim Meyer for his support and mentorship as we look to continue to execute our strategic priorities. In just a few years, the company has undergone a significant transformation in both its earning potential and capital allocation, achieving impressive milestones during our restructuring efforts as a pure play manufacturer. Today, we are at an inflection point with both the build out of our new facility and right sizing of our capacity is now complete. We have a proven manufacturing platform to build upon, coupled with FreightCar's long history of industry expertise, which allows us to remain highly focused on both our operational excellence and our commercialization strategy. We have laid the groundwork for our next phase of growth, and by diligently executing our strategy, I am confident we will be able to achieve the power of scale and leverage that I believe exists in this business. With that, let me provide an update on the industry dynamics at play during the first quarter. As a reminder, demand for rail equipment depends on factors like downstream rail activity, the profitability of Class 1 railroads, freight volumes, public policy. Industry volatility is rooted in the dependence on industrial, energy, and farm production. which can vary with changing economic and weather conditions. Volatility in the railcar industry is further influenced by fluctuations in commodity prices and the extended useful life of railcars. During the first quarter, we saw an increase in service levels and throughput of railroads, allowing the shippers to be more consistent and resulting in improvements to the supply chain. Based on a competitive industry environment, we maintained our market presence in the first quarter, which Matt will speak to in a few minutes. Overall, we continue to view these metrics as positive for a healthy rail environment that will drive more freight to rail, reinforcing our growing confidence in the secular trends we see important to this business. With that, let's turn to the discussion of our first quarter results. Freight Car America delivered a solid first quarter performance in line with our expectations. Revenue generated during the first quarter increased 99% year over year to 161 million on record quarterly deliveries of 1,223 rail cars, which includes roughly 200 cars from the year end that were impacted by the border closure in December. This marks our second consecutive quarter of producing and shipping more than 1,000 units at our newly completed facility in Mexico, which truly validates our operating capabilities. This record is also a testament to our expanded manufacturing footprint that is now capable of producing 5,000 or more rail cars per year. Moving forward, it has always been our intention to bring build rates back to optimal levels to meet customer demand, which is in line with our guidance for the year. With the build-out of the facility complete, we are well positioned to focus on operational excellence, i.e., efficiency and scale in accordance with our market momentum. In addition to top line strength and robust deliveries, we reported gross margins of 7.1% in the first quarter of 2024, while adjusted EBITDA increased versus the same quarter of the prior year to 6.1 million. Turning to orders, as with other industry participants, activity picked up, albeit slowly, in the first quarter. We received orders of 384 units valued at 45.2 million. We anticipate orders to pick up in the second half of the year, and our full year expectations for 2024 are unchanged, continuing to support replacement rates between 35,000 and 40,000 units per year. Switching gears now to touch on our operations, echoing my opening comments, I believe that we are optimally positioned to drive enhanced earnings moving forward. As a reminder, the strategic repositioning we have undertaken over the last few years allows us to leverage the cyclical nature of the railcar industry. differentiating us from other industry participants. Our variable cost structure enables swift adjustments in production and operational capacity to align with fluctuating demand and reducing risk during downturns by optimizing resource allegation. With our facility now complete and the startup costs associated with the fourth production line behind us, we are focused on driving further efficiencies at our plant. Now that we have two consecutive quarters of higher levels of production under our belt, and have successfully tested our operations, I am extremely confident in our ability to produce a full array of railcar products at higher capacity to meet demand as the industry picks up. Likewise, we remain confident for the full year and reiterate our stated guidance for 2024. With that, I will next turn the call over to Matt to discuss the market, and then to Mike for more detail on our financial results.