Bakken Directory Winter 2015: Vertex Rail Technologies plans to produce rail cars

Officials of Vertex Rail Technologies LLC joined North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and local leaders Nov. 13 in announcing the company’s plan to make railroad tank cars at a site in the City of Wilmington. Vertex will invest $60 million in upfitting and equipping the site, where it will directly employ 1,342 workers across two shifts. The company has already begun working with Cape Fear Community College and other partners on what will be significant staffing needs. The company’s direct hires will include assemblers, fitters, welders and painters.

Behind Vertex’s plan is a surging U.S. energy industry. The U.S. is on track to be the world’s top petroleum producer by 2020 - ahead of both Russia and Saudi Arabia, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. “People are trying to pull oil out of the ground at record rates,” says Don Croteau, chief executive officer at Vertex. “With that capacity stress, we saw a real market opportunity.”

The company will manufacture two product lines in Wilmington: 31,800-gallon general purpose oil tank cars and 3,285 cubic-foot covered “Sandhopper” cars. “Both are used by drillers, refiners and logistics providers in the oil industry,” Croteau says. “These cars get us into the marketplace quickly.”

Vertex Rail Technologies is a rapidly growing rail car company focused on the need in the energy transportation sector. The company’s founders have more than a century of combined experience as industry innovators in the rail and vessel manufacturing, pulling together industry, fabrication, design and manufacturing. For more information about Vertex Rail Technologies visit www.vertexrail.com.

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