USA: According to the car builder Greenbrier, 11 sites produce cars for the North American market today, with six located in Mexico.
Three of these are owned by Greenbrier, another two belong to the largest player TrinityRail, and the last one is developed by FreightCar America.
Map of U.S. and Mexican freight car production sites (enlarge). Source: Greenbrier
The geography of production used to be different. In 2000, only two out of 19 plants were located in Mexico. Greenbrier explains that lower costs and flexible manufacturing make moving production to Mexico a priority. At the same time, some facilities remain in the USA to offset political and country risks.
According to the American Railway Supply Institute, the North American market had 58,700 freight cars under contract in October. Greenbrier notes that the USA and Canada operate 1.6 mln freight cars, with an average age of 21 years.
