BusTalk

[Q65A]

From today's Mass Transit e-magazine:

New Flyer Closes 2008 with Record US $4.1 Billion Backlog

New Flyer Industries Inc. announced recently that total new orders reported during fiscal 2008 totaled 4,815 buses (6,690 equivalent production units or “EUs”) for a total of US $2.78 billion in orders. This reflects a win rate of 64 percent of tenders in which New Flyer participated. These orders are for a variety of vehicle configurations, including 35-, 40- and 60-foot buses with clean diesel, diesel-electric hybrid, gasoline-electric hybrid and compressed natural gas (CNG) propulsion systems. In addition, these orders are from both current and new customers.
New Flyer’s order backlog as of December 28, 2008 was 9,531 EUs, which represents an increase of 38 percent in comparison to the 6,916 EUs in backlog at January 1, 2008. The value of the order backlog as of December 28, 2008 of US $4.1 billion has increased by 44 percent, compared to the US $2.8 billion backlog at the start of 2008. Given current market conditions, management does not expect cancellations in orders.

A breakdown of the percentage of the total backlog of 9,531 EUs available for conversion to firm orders is shown in the table below.

Bus Length Hybrid Electric Diesel CNG and Other Alternatives
40’ and under 21% 18% 13%
60’ articulated 43% 4% 1%
Firm orders included in the order backlog as of December 28, 2008 totaled US $1.2 billion or 2,498 equivalent units which is consistent with the January 1, 2008 firm orders of US $1.2 billion or 2,844 equivalent units.

As of December 28, 2008, options included in the order backlog totaled US $2.9 billion or 7,033 equivalent units. In comparison options included in the January 1, 2008 order backlog totaled US $1.6 billion or 4,072 equivalent units. The company is pleased to report that 99.5 percent of available options at the beginning of fiscal 2008 were either exercised or remain available for future conversion to firm orders. Options included in the December 28, 2008 order backlog available for exercise by year are shown below.

Year EU Options Available
2009 686
2010 755
2011 1,102
2012 1,580
2013 2,910


Currently, there are a total of 9,852 EUs in the order pipeline for heavy-duty transit buses for 2009; these include bids that have been submitted, bids currently in process, and anticipated bid activity to the end of the year based on transit customers’ fleet procurement plans.

NOTE: All dollar amounts are stated in U.S. currency based on an exchange rate of US $1.00 = CAN $1.21 to calculate the value of the Canadian contracts in this release.

[Q65A]

It appears that NYCT's refusal to buy any D60LF's has not hurt NF very much.

[RailBus63]

Options are just that - options. Firm orders actually declined 12 percent from 2,844 buses at the beginning of 2008 to 2,498.