New Mass Rail Car Builder! (or not) - Vertex Rail Mfg

[MaineCoonCat]

This has smelled funny from the start, and disturbing news regarding Vertex Rail seems now to come out weekly. The latest is that the one company that has provided a letter of intent to purchase has reneged, leading to lawsuits and counter-lawsuits.

As in this perhaps?

[quote="On Jul 1, 2015 In an article entitled "Vertex Disputes Firm’s Claim For $437,500 Refund", Cece Nunn of the WilmingtonBiz staff"]

Vertex Disputes Firm’s Claim For $437,500 Refund
By Cece Nunn, posted Jul 1, 2015
A Texas-based company is suing Vertex Rail Technologies in an attempt to get more than $430,000 back from a deposit on an order of at least 500 rail cars, a claim Vertex has denied in its own filing in New Hanover County Superior Court.

A counterclaim and answer filed in June by a lawyer for Vertex Rail Technologies says Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure isn’t entitled to a refund and should be the one to pay Vertex damages.

The dispute centers around a letter of intent, dated Nov. 14, the day after Vertex announced its plans to bring 1,300 jobs to a rail car manufacturing plant in Wilmington. The letter outlines a future purchase of rail cars in the amount of at least $43.75 million, according to court records.

“Solaris proposes to acquire a minimum of 500 and a maximum of 2,000 covered sand hopper cars to be manufactured by VRT at a facility in Wilmington, North Carolina . . .Current manufacturing availability will allow VRT to produce 100 rail cars per month beginning the first week of July 2015…with the final delivery and payment schedule to be defined in a purchase order,” the letter states.

The letter, addressed to Vertex Rail CEO Donald Croteau, was signed by Croteau and Mike Flinn, president of Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure, a firm that develops “strategic assets and services utilized by companies engaged in the drilling and completion of oil and gas wells,” according to court documents and Solaris’ website.

The Solaris claim says the company gave Vertex a deposit of $437,500 on Nov. 18, but was subsequently unable to secure financing by the due date of the purchase order Solaris was supposed to submit to Vertex.

Vertex did not give Solaris the due diligence items requested in the letter of intent, the Solaris claim says, including a product analysis and a Transportation Technology Center Inc. submittal. TTCI is a railroad testing and training facility in Colorado affiliated with the Association of American Railroads. The claim says, “The TTCI submittal was to occur on or before December 19, 2014, and evidence of submittal was to be provided ‘in a form acceptable to’ Solaris by that date, but no evidence was provided to Solaris by that date even as Vertex sought to persuade Solaris not to seek the return of the deposit.”

The letter of intent said Solaris was entitled to a refund of the deposit if a mutually acceptable purchase order was not agreed upon; Solaris was unable to secure financing; or any of the due diligence items listed in the letter were not satisfied in a form acceptable to Solaris.

According to the Vertex answer to the Solaris claims, Solaris “never made a good faith attempt to secure financing for its purchase” and “made a couple of cursory inquiries regarding financing but never made any sincere effort to apply for financing.”[/quote]

Read more at 'WilmingtonBiz's web site

[bostontrainguy]

USA: China’s CRRC Corp has taken a minority stake in a joint venture formed by start-up Vertex Rail Technologies and private equity partners to manufacture wagons in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Vertex Railcar Corp plans to produce ‘innovative’ tank cars branded Generation Next which would meet the DOT-117 safety standards published in May. Covered hoppers are also planned, and potentially other designs. Production is to be undertaken at a former Terex Crane plant in Wilmington, which would have the capacity to produce more than 4 500 wagons a year, potentially employing 1 300 people.

Vertex said CRRC would receive a minority stake in the joint venture in return for supplying components for initial production and providing staff training, which is currently underway in China.

Two prototype tank cars are to be produced for AAR certification. Once they are approved, CRRC would make a cash investment to increase its stake in the joint venture to 50%.

[Cowford]

Well I'll be darned. Vertex actually produced some small cube covered hoppers for GATX:

http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/12/08/sneak ... rail-cars/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[FLRailFan1]

Well I'll be darned. Vertex actually produced some small cube covered hoppers for GATX:

http://www.wwaytv3.com/2015/12/08/sneak ... rail-cars/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope they will succeed without CRRC's cash...

[Safetee]

Long and short after a variety of wrangling dangling and getting into bed with this one and that one and after successfully manufacturing a variety of cars, Vertex appears to be pulling the plug at the end of this year.