Tanker trailer market fails to fire despite some heat in maintenance
Multimodal vehicle engineering and distribution firm Engenco has reversed last year’s losses to post a $4.1 million financial year profit.
Engenco, which owns tanker builder Convair Engineering and Drivetrain Power and Propulsion amongst other firms, based the $31 million turnaround on a near $5 million rise in revenue to $132.8 million.
Convair’s revenues fell from $14.7 million to $13.2 million for a pre-tax profit of $468,000, down from $1.6 million.
“Convair experienced a depressed and highly price-competitive market during the year with most customers operating on very low capital expenditure budgets,” the company says.
“This had the effect of sales being made at very tight margins even though efficiency gains resulted in a lower manufacturing cost per tanker produced.
“A focus on the provision of maintenance services and spare parts supply helped to boost revenue and margin but the slump in overall demand led to an unsatisfactory profit result for Convair.
“Demand for tankers, components, spares and maintenance services is expected to remain mixed, although a reasonable order book is currently in hand.”
On the rail side, the owner of Gemco Rail saw that operation’s revenues rise from $35.6 million to $44.1 million as its pre-tax profit rose to $3 million from a loss of $1.7 million.
Last month, the group sold for an undisclosed sum the majority of its Greentrains locomotive fleet and spare parts to Holdco Holding, the holding company of Southern Shorthaul Railroad.