Harsco notes new equipment orders

Harsco Corp. on Tuesday announced new orders for railway track maintenance equipment from New Zealand and North America, expected to generate revenue of more than $13 million and add to Harsco Rail’s production and delivery order book for 2012.

The company said the New Zealand order comes from national rail operator KiwiRail, and includes three consists, each made up of a Harsco tamper and ballast regulator. The Tampers are Harsco Mark VI machines, designed for mainline and switch tamping. The Mark VI for KiwiRail includes such features as four driving axles, front and rear operator cabins, and the ability to travel while coupled to the ballast regulator.

The KiwiRail Ballast Regulators will be produced at Harsco Rail’s Queensland, Australia, plant, continuing a relationship of more than 30 years between the Australian operation and this customer, while the Mark VI Tampers will be produced at Harsco Rail’s Columbia, S.C., headquarters plant. Deliveries are scheduled for the second half of 2012.

Harsco also has received orders from North America that include several tamper configurations for use by customers in a range of short line, metro and industrial railroad applications. These units, which will also be produced at the Columbia, S.C., plant, are scheduled for delivery principally in the first half of 2012, with one unit scheduled for delivery in the last quarter of 2012.

Said Harsco Rail President Scott W. Jacoby, “Our production pipeline continues to be built across a broad cross-section of market geographies and customers, which is a direct reflection of Harsco Rail’s increasing global breadth and scope. These orders also underscore the success of our product line management approach to understanding global customer needs to drive our product development. The pairing of Tampers and Ballast Regulators into a single consist underpinned by our Jupiter system is a perfect example of our ability to leverage our technology to our customers’ advantage.”