Aug. 11, 2006 — American Railcar Industries, Inc. (ARI) announced that the company's board of directors has approved the construction of a new flexible railcar manufacturing plant to be built adjacent to its tank railcar manufacturing plant in Marmaduke, Ark.

The new plant would be capable of producing tank, covered hopper, and intermodal railcars. The company expects the plant would have an initial capacity to produce 2500 tank railcars annually, with railcar production expected to begin in early 2008. This new plant would be in addition to the tank railcar expansion currently underway at Marmaduke to increase capacity by 1,000 tank railcars annually. Construction on the new plant is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2006.

The company also announced that it has signed agreements with two important customers to purchase a total of 2000 railcars per year from the company in each of 2008 and 2009. One of these customers has options to purchase up to an additional 2000 railcars. It is currently anticipated that the railcars for these new orders would be produced at the new plant. These orders represent a significant increase in the company's backlog over the 12,790 railcars reported as of June 30, 2006.

American Railcar Industries is a leading North American manufacturer of covered hopper and tank railcars. ARI also repairs and refurbishes railcars, provides fleet management services and designs and manufactures certain railcar and industrial components used in the production of its railcars as well as railcars and non-railcar industrial products produced by others. ARI provides its railcar customers with integrated solutions through a comprehensive set of high quality products and related services.