Gain a complete view of North American railcar production with quarterly forecasts that cover all major car types—box, flat, hopper, covered top gondola, and tank.

Each forecast tracks deliveries over time, compares historical trends to current cycles, and pinpoints when the next major turning points are likely to occur.

This visibility allows manufacturers and suppliers to anticipate order swings, better manage supplier lead times, and plan capital or staffing adjustments before the market shifts.

Understand the demand drivers behind every railcar build. Freight projections are segmented by commodity groups—such as agriculture, chemicals, construction, automotive, and metals—to reveal where freight volumes are expanding or contracting.

By linking commodity performance to rail equipment demand, the report helps builders, investors, and lessors identify which car types are positioned for growth and where exposure may need to be reduced.

See the full picture of fleet activity with utilization and capacity indicators that quantify how efficiently existing cars are being used.

Detailed analysis of cars in service, new orders, and backlogs helps you uncover bottlenecks or slack in the system.

Whether you’re managing fleet renewal cycles, negotiating lease terms, or planning expansions, these insights allow you to make capacity decisions based on evidence—not instinct.

FTR’s proprietary Economically Derived Demand (EDD) models merge macroeconomic performance with transportation fundamentals to determine the true need for new railcar builds.

The models isolate replacement versus growth demand, giving users an objective benchmark for market health.

By understanding how freight volumes, industrial output, and capital investment trends feed into demand, stakeholders can validate internal forecasts and plan production with confidence.

Freight•cast™ links high-level economic indicators to railcar-specific implications.

The report tracks movements in GDP, industrial production, and diesel prices to show how these upstream variables ripple through freight flows and equipment utilization.

This integrated view helps financial planners and executives anticipate shifts in carload activity, assess risk, and prepare for changing demand across commodities and car types.

Each quarter, Joseph Towers adds expert perspective on the news and data shaping the rail equipment landscape—from regulatory changes and Class I investment trends to commodity demand and supply-chain constraints.

Subscribers also gain access to quarterly Rail Equipment webinars and monthly State of Freight briefings, giving your team direct access to FTR analysts for interpretation, discussion, and strategy alignment around the latest forecast developments.