Saudi Railway Orders 782 Freight Cars to Support Phosphate 3 Mine Transport Expansion

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) signed a freight car procurement contract with Greenbrier during the InnoTrans international rail transport technology exhibition in Berlin, Germany, to purchase 782 new freight cars for the Phosphate 3 expansion project. The contract covers vehicle design, manufacturing, and supply, primarily aimed at enhancing rail transport capacity for phosphoric acid, molten sulfur, and other related cargo.

The same procurement batch also includes a contract signed with Progress Rail for 33 new freight locomotives. SAR stated that the two contracts will be used to improve the availability and reliability of its locomotive and freight car fleet, configure additional traction and rolling stock capacity for the transport demand following the Phosphate 3 project expansion, and simultaneously increase the capacity of the rail freight system.

Greenbrier disclosed that in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2026, it received orders for a total of 3,400 railcars, with a total value of approximately US$600 million, of which the Saudi SAR order accounted for approximately 780 units. This batch of vehicles includes tank cars for transporting phosphoric acid and molten sulfur, as well as double-stack intermodal container cars; the latter also marks the first time Greenbrier has supplied such intermodal vehicles to SAR. Greenbrier did not separately disclose the amount of the SAR order or the specific quantities of each vehicle type.

Greenbrier's cooperation with SAR began with a tank car order in 2015. Some of the tank cars in this order use American steel, are produced at Greenbrier's North American manufacturing base in Mexico, and have already begun shipping to Saudi Arabia. The newly procured vehicles will connect with the additional freight demand of the Phosphate 3 project, undertaking the transport of mining and chemical products from production bases to the rail network and subsequent logistics nodes.