Harsco receives $13 million in orders for North America, New Zealand

Harsco Corporation received new orders for railway track maintenance equipment from New Zealand and North America that are expected to generate new revenues of more than $13 million and add to Harsco Rail's production and delivery order book for 2012. The New Zealand order comes from KiwiRail, that country's national rail operator, and calls for 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. This allows the two machines to be operated as a train, thereby improving mobility throughout the system and greatly improving safety. Ballast regulators follow the tamping process to restore the correct ballast profile, which is important for the lateral and longitudinal stability of the newly tamped track. According to Harsco Rail's surfacing product manager, Allen Branham, the KiwiRail order marks the first tamper/ballast regulator pairing to utilize Harsco's proprietary Jupiter Control System in both units. Designed and developed by Harsco Rail, the Jupiter system uses a network of input/output modules positioned throughout the machine to provide the operator with real-time display screen control and monitoring of key operating systems along with onboard diagnostics to minimize maintenance and downtime. Jupiter will also enable the two-unit consist to be driven from either machine. 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, South Carolina headquarters plant. Deliveries are scheduled for the second half of 2012. Harsco has also received orders from North America that include several tamper configurations for use by customers in a range of shortline, 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. Harsco Rail President Scott Jacoby said, "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."