The Rumored End of the MMA?

Heard through the grapevine that MMA Management personnel are being forced to take a pretty significant pay cut. Can't say that I'm surprised with the lack of business up there currently.

Outside of the mills at Mill/E Mill and Madawaska, what are MMA's top 5-10 customers? Any idea on what they generate for carloadings?

Basically the entire northern operations serve Fraser Paper which operates the mill at Madawaska but it also serves Fraser lumber mills along the way. And do they carry potatoes from Caribou?

The LP OSB mill at Houlton/New Limerick, which was recently expanded, has to be one of the bigger customers besides the Paper mills. There have always been several other decent size Lumber mills along the N-S Mainline, though I think some of them have closed down recently. The old Delta Chemicals facility on the Searsport branch gets quite a bit of Sulphuric Acid. Am quite certain that they don't move Potato's by rail, but the McCain French Fry facilities in the Presque Isle/Caribou area do receive Cooking Oil. There are/were some Fertilizer plants up that way as well that received rail and at times they were shipping Oats from County farms. Not sure where they go all go, but there are some Log loading facilities on the line. Some of this traffic probably is local while some is likely handed off to the ST/NBSR/CN to be sent to Lumber/Paper mills. Then there's the Oil traffic that moves North from Searport. Beyond that there may be some LPG traffic and transload business (both Boxcar and Tankcar) at LMS, but can't think of much else.

Cowford wrote:Outside of the mills at Mill/E Mill and Madawaska, what are MMA's top 5-10 customers? Any idea on what they generate for carloadings?

What about in Quebec? Any big customers out there?

Re: Management pay cut -- Similar situation to 2003 when the Millinocket mills shut down, but the MMA was able to persevere. Anyone have an inside information as to the severity of the pay cut, job cuts and/or pay cuts for operations employees? Hopefully they can get through this, but I really have my doubts. Quite frankly, given current traffic, I'm wondering who would even be interested in purchasing the MMA?

I heard (not directly from an MMA employee), that Sr Management took a 20% pay cut and the rest of managment took a 15% cut in pay.

It's too bad -- you know they've got talent in Grinrod, but there's nothing he can do about all these mill closures. Anyone know what the MMA Capital Program looks like for 2009?

Does it get enough service by being a Montreal to PAR or VRS connector?

You've got to admire a company that "shares the pain" with management as well as the rank and file... unlike other companies who lay off the rank and file and then give huge bonuses to management.

atsf sp, I would think that the SLR and Danville Jct would be a more viable Montreal option for PAR. Especially considering how much capital work both railroads are putting into it.

Possibly ag products offer a glimmer of hope for the company. I'm not expecting unit trains of potatoes anytime soon, but they could possibly (??) benefit from any advantage Maine may gather from the "locavore" movement... at least from the standpoint of more inbound fertilizer? Then again, I think that movement was "fueled" by petro-related price spikes... which have come-and-gone, at least for now. Maine actually has appears to have potential as a more significant niche crops producer... potential.

Searsport seems the be their focus of attention now. I believe they are still trying to siphon traffic off CN to the NBSR/MMA but I think contractually that is a problem. A lot of the focus is on rebuilding and repairing locomotives as well for other companies. The State of Maine is funding the railroad $1M a year.

Too bad they couldn't get some of the HUMMVEE rebuilds from Limestone to haul. I quite often see several trucks hauling 3 to a time South on the interstate. Now it seems they may be rebuilding larger vehicles there too as I see some trucks carrying two 5 Ton trucks that look like they have been rebuilt.
Mike

The last great hope?

http://bangordailynews.com/detail/100775.html