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Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WAB)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 30, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Wabtec Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Tim Wesley, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Wesley, the floor is yours, sir.

Timothy R. Wesley - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you, Mike. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our 2018 third quarter earnings call. Let me introduce the rest of our team here with me in Wilmerding; Ray Betler, President and CEO; Pat Dugan, our CFO; Stéphane Rambaud-Measson, our COO; our Corporate Controller, John Mastalerz; and Al Neupaver, our Executive Chairman. We're going to make our prepared remarks as we usually do and then we will be happy to take your questions. And of course, during the call, we will make forward-looking statements, so we just ask that you please review today's press release for the appropriate disclaimers. With that, I'll turn it over to you, Ray.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thanks, Tim. Good morning, everyone. It's good to talk to you today. I'm happy to report, we have strong growth in sales and EPS for the third quarter and we're well-positioned for a strong finish to the year, both in terms of earnings and in terms of cash flow. We also affirmed our EPS guidance for the year and increased our sales guidance. In the third quarter, we saw year-on-year revenue growth in both our segments for the fourth quarter in a row. Even with strong revenue growth this year, adjusting for changes in FX, our backlog remains a record high. We won new business in most of our major markets and product areas around the world. As we focus on our short-term performance, we're also investing in our long-term growth opportunities, including, of course, our planned merger with GE Transportation, which we'll talk about those opportunities later in the call. But first, I want to introduce Pat to review the third quarter numbers.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thanks, Ray, and good morning, everybody. Sales for the third quarter were $1.08 billion. Our Transit segment sales increased 11% to $686 million. This increase was due to strong organic growth, adding about $61 million from acquisitions, which contributed about $21 million and those more than offset the negative impact of foreign exchange rates of about $14 million. This is the fourth quarter in a row we've seen organic sales growth, which shows that our backlog is really starting to kick in. Freight sales increased 15% to $392 million, the fourth year-on-year increase in a row. The increase was also due to strong organic growth, adding about $46 million and from acquisitions contributing about $11 million and that was offset by a negative impact of foreign exchange of about $6 million. Freight sales and backlog are near their highest levels in two years and Freight aftermarket sales showed year-on-year growth for the fifth quarter in a row. All of these are positive indicators. When you look at our consolidated operating income for the quarter, it was $125 million or 11.6% of sales. Now this operating income included transaction costs related to the GE Transportation merger of about $7 million. It included restructuring expenses of about $3 million and included about $1 million for a goods and service tax law change in India, which is reflected in our SG&A. Excluding those items, our operating margin was 12.6%. That's the same as the second quarter, despite a 3% decrease in sales consistent with seasonality. During the quarter, we also had a negative impact of about $2 million due to tariff increases, which we were able to offset a portion of with surcharges or other adjustments. Our full-year 2018 adjusted operating margin target is now about 13%, slightly lower than our initial guidance,…

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Okay. Thanks, Pat. As I mentioned previously, for the year we increased our revenue guidance slightly and we affirmed our EPS guidance. We now expect full-year revenues of about $4.35 billion with adjusted earnings per diluted share of about $3.85, excluding costs related to the GE merger, restructuring charges, and the effects of tax law changes. Compared to 2017, this would represent revenue growth of about 11% and adjusted EPS growth of about 12%. Our adjusted operating margin target for the year is now about 13%, slightly lower than our previous expectation as we finish some of our UK projects and absorb some negative effects from the new tariffs in the U.S. Before I ask Stéphane to discuss the Transit and Freight segments, let me give you an update on the merger with GE. As you know, I've been calling this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I truly believe that. We're excited by both the short-term as well as the long-term opportunities of this combination. Post-closing, Wabtec will be a Fortune 500 company, and a global transportation leader in rail equipment, software and services, with operations in more than 50 countries. Financially, GE Transportation has continued to perform as expected this year and remains confident about its outlook for 2019. In its third quarter, the company had revenues of $932 million and a segment profit of $162 million for an operating margin of 17.4%. The company booked orders of $2 billion in the third quarter more than double the year-ago third quarter. This performance reflects what we are also seeing in our Freight markets. Rail traffic growth is up, rolling stock coming out of storage and OEM orders picking up. Park locomotives for example are down more than 30%, since the beginning of the year. We expect the GE Transportation transaction…

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thanks, Stéphane. So, I'll conclude our prepared remarks by talking about the long-term outlook. Two weeks ago, we've presented our five-year strategic plan to our board. The plan meets our long-term financial goals to average double-digit growth in revenues and in earnings through the business cycle with improving margins. To achieve these goals, we have growth initiatives in each of our major product lines, consistent with our four growth strategies. After we complete our merger with General Electric Transportation, we will, of course, update our strategic plan. From our initial analysis and due diligence, we are confident the merger improves our ability to deliver on our long-term growth targets. So, just to reiterate some of my comments at the beginning of the call. We had a strong third quarter. We are positioned to finish the year even stronger, both in terms of earnings and in terms of cash flow. We saw year-on-year revenue growth in both our segments for the fourth quarter in a row. We affirmed our EPS guidance for the year and we increased our sales guidance slightly. Even with the strong revenue growth this year, our backlog remains near a record high. And the Freight market continues to improve. We expect to build on these accomplishments in 2019 based on the improvements we're seeing in our Freight business and through the Wabtec Excellence Program, which gives us the ability to generate cash and to increase margins over time. And with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. The first question we have will come from Justin Long of Stephens. Please go ahead.

Justin Long - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks and good morning.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hi, Justin.

Justin Long - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst

So, wanted to start and ask about the operating cash flow guidance for $200 million. And was curious, if you could provide some more detail on what drove the reduction? I think it was a little bit surprising just because the EPS guidance for the full-year didn't change, but it looks like the expectation for operating cash flow came down by about $150 million or so. So, Pat, could you maybe walk through what drove that change? And going forward, what your confidence is that the cash flow profile of this business can return to what you've historically said, operating cash flow above net income?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, the third quarter operating cash flow really was the reason for reassessing the number. We would have typically had a profile where we would have seen a building cash from operations every quarter and improving sequentially and then a strong fourth quarter, which is kind of our history. Clearly, in the fourth quarter and we're giving you GAAP numbers, not adjusted numbers when we give you that guidance, but you had a fourth quarter that was negatively impacted by the tax payments that we had to make, under the current rules. We definitely, year-to-date, have had – cash has been used in restructuring and paying for the GET transaction costs. And then finally, we have working capital performance that is not what we would have expected. It's really related to our projects about how some of the milestones have not been met and things have been deferred a little bit. And so, we're focused now on recovering, on aggressively completing and closing out those project milestones. We're working with the project teams, the local finance teams and the executive office and aggressively managing our payables with our suppliers. These are timing issues. They're things that we will recover on, it's just that the underlying milestones of those projects have affected the cash flow in the year and our guidance.

Justin Long - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. And Pat, you said that $200 million was a GAAP number. Do you have the adjusted number? What's your expectation for adjusted cash from operations in 2018?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, I think if you look at that historically, okay, we have – for the first nine months. Okay? We have an impact of about $24 million from taxes. We have, for the first nine months about a $30 million impact from the GE Transportation transaction. And then, we have an impact, really kind of related to working capital that are the business needs to – and we'll recover into the fourth quarter and into 2019. We forecasted right now a fourth quarter performance that will be about $150 million. And we think that this is a conservative view of our ability. We've had fourth quarters where we've done better than that $150 million and so we're just making sure that we have a number out there that – and a guidance for you that makes sense and is achieved.

Justin Long - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And secondly, I wanted to ask about the Freight segment and expectations for that segment going forward from both an aftermarket and an OE standpoint, it feels like inquiries have picked up. Ray, you alluded to some of the order strength that GE is seeing in their business. Could you just talk about the level of visibility you have at this point to a cyclical recovery in Freight in the year ahead?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, Justin both segments are significantly up, both on the aftermarket services side as well as in new car side. Maybe I'll just mention a couple without mentioning the names, we've received an order for over $50 million in the Freight market, for – it's an order for over 3,000 cars. We have 100% content on that order. We have another one for 800 cars that we have 100% content. We have another one for 700 cars, where we have total content, but the cushioning devices. So, we're picking up our share of business and business is picking up in total. On the aftermarket side, more and more equipment is being pulled out of storage as you know and that equipment is in lesser and lesser states of usability. So, it needs to be, in many cases, serviced and refurbished before it goes back into service. So, we still feel pretty good about, I know traffic has slowed down a little bit, but it's still positive and certainly the new orders are very encouraging.

Justin Long - Stephens, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. I'll leave it at that. I appreciate the time.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next, we have Allison Poliniak of Wells Fargo.

Allison A. Poliniak-Cusic - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Hi, guys, good morning.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hi, Allison.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hi.

Allison A. Poliniak-Cusic - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

I just wanted to go back to the reduction in the margin target. I think you cited tariffs as well as the lower priced contacts. Could you maybe help understand, one, with the lower priced contract, is it incremental? And maybe help us even quantify the tariff impact and how you're thinking about that heading into 2019 at this point?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, I think in a tariff, I think we talked about the quarterly impacts about $2 million and we – that's the gross impact and we worked very hard to offset that with mitigations through surcharges or price increases or – and in some cases, we actually even bought some inventory in advance to avoid that impact. So, that's the Q3 impact and I think that we're going to have something similar going into 2019, but we're still working on that. In terms of the lower margin projects, I mean, we definitely have been operating throughout the year with some assumptions on margins and where they would be. We did have a chance to look at those projects in the third quarter and probably had about – we had a discrete item as we always do, of about a net of about $10 million in the quarter. And just related to improving the estimates on the cost on filling that contract. So, all those things kind of impacted the Q and of course, that impacts the full-year.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Maybe Allison, if I could make a comment about tariffs, so we are basically tracking that issue on a daily basis. So, we have reasonably good visibility, trying to be proactive about what the impact potentially could be, but also establishing strategies for how to mitigate the tariffs by moving things to other countries – through other countries, we're obviously trying to anticipate what's going to happen, if the next round of tariffs get implemented. So, it's a little bit of a dynamic situation on a day-to-day basis. But, I think we're doing a pretty good job anticipating it and trying to put mitigation steps in place.

Allison A. Poliniak-Cusic - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Great. That's helpful. And then the OEM, you talked about ongoing price pressure still for the new cars. Could you explain to us how that flows, if it even flows down to you, your ability to price in this market on the Freight?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, the Freight market has really not changed dramatically. There's always some price pressure, but we have some leverage too, there's a lot of demand right now, so there's some pricing opportunities. So, it goes both ways. I think we're in a pretty good position relative to our pricing.

Allison A. Poliniak-Cusic - Wells Fargo Securities

Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next, we have Matt Elkott of Cowen. Matt Elkott - Cowen & Co. LLC: Thank you. Ray, can you give us some update to the financial targets you have for GE? I think, the last time we heard about this was last month. Are those EBITDA and EBIT estimates still intact? Or how has your confidence changed, if any, since then?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Good. I can answer that. I think that, as far as GE's performance, I think they announced today and they were right on-track with their third quarter numbers and that's very encouraging considering where they're at in the cycle. As far as going forward, what has been published is out there. So, we don't see any change – we haven't heard anything from GE that would change that.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, I think the backlog is built in there...

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

The backlog is enormous.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

...so we're in a very positive situation too, with the pickup in the market.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah, I agree, Ray. Matt Elkott - Cowen & Co. LLC: Got it. That's helpful. And then just one more on PTC as we approach the installation deadline and 2018 is largely behind us. Can you give us an idea on how the aftermarket contribution to your PTC revenue has shaped up relative to your expectations going into the year? And how that's going to trend in 2019 and 2020 as we approach the implementation deadline in 2020?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. Sure, Matt. We've always said that, we thought we would be in a $50 million to $100 million aftermarket range in the aftermarket business. And we're right in that range. I think we've done a reasonably good job forecasting that. That's a result of mainly MSAs that we've been able to book with the Class 1s and now more and more commuter agencies. So, the commuter agencies are smaller contracts, but there's many commuter agencies, so we're able to sign those up as we're implementing the projects with those agencies, Matt. Some of those agencies just received funding over the last year or two, so we literally still are booking new orders in project-based orders in the PTC area to do sub-system and turnkey projects. As far as deployment goes, I think it's going pretty well across the Class 1. CFRA (39:32) is deeply involved with that and we're doing everything we can to support our customers as well as FRA. Matt Elkott - Cowen & Co. LLC: Ray, do you see any – year in the next three or four years where there would be a big step function decline in PTC revenue – total PTC revenue?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

I think, again, Matt, we need to maybe differentiate again the difference between PTC per se and signaling. So, we've migrated to the term signaling not to, to be cute. We migrated to the term signaling, because it encompasses PTC, but also other capabilities, it encompasses other subsystems, it encompasses project-based revenues. So, pure PTC information is based on hardware, deliverables, yes. Obviously, we are very close to finishing out the delivery of all PTC hardware onboard computers. But in terms of signaling, we still believe that we're able to grow that business. So, I think, we've done a good job of demonstrating that this year. There was concern and anxiety out there that we would not be able to do that this year, but we're on track to have pretty significant growth in signaling area this year. So, we're pretty happy with where we're positioned. Matt Elkott - Cowen & Co. LLC: Great. Thank you very much.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question we have will come from Jason Rodgers of Great Lakes Review.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst

Yes. If I could just follow-up on that PTC line of questioning. Would you provide the figures for the quarter of the PTC revenue and signaling? And if you're still forecasting that area to be up 10% for the year?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yes. Timmy, you want to do that?

Timothy R. Wesley - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah, I've got them. So, the PTC for the quarter was $81 million; signaling was $27 million, so the total is $108 million. And we did about $322 million last year – and yeah, so we're expecting 10% to 15% growth this year.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst

And how should we be thinking about margins in Transit over the next few quarters? Maybe if you could just review the timing of the largest of these low-margin UK contracts, when those will be done, and when you would expect that segment margin to turn positive year-over-year on an adjusted basis.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, just to be careful, we typically don't give any kind of guidance or any kind of forward view of the margins for segments. And there's just a lot of discrete items that tend to go in and out of these segment disclosures, but our goal obviously is to continue improvements on a quarter-to-quarter.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, what we can talk to you about is what we've committed, Jason, in the Investor Conference and what we've continued to discuss, which is a 1% year-on-year improvement and maybe we give chance to Stéphane to explain some of the things we're doing operationally to improve our performance and focus on that objective. Stéphane Rambaud-Measson - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.: Sure, Ray. I think, well, I described a couple of the key action that we are taking; a much more rigorous bidding process, better, stronger project management. One of the key elements which has been a drag on our profitability has been this UK refurbishment project, where hopefully it's armful of project (43:25) and we are getting at the end of the engineering phase of the project, meaning that we are starting to push trains out and we have a much more stable configuration as we had a quarter ago. As we are finishing up this project, we are going to (43:47) and actually, we are taking actions to restructure the business, lower our cost and project our deliveries in a much more stable manner than what we had before. So, if we assume that we will achieve this target, we should be well placed to increase our margin on – by one point, actually, on the yearly basis as we have committed to our board recently.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. And just finally, companywide, wonder if you could talk about the impact that you're seeing in raw material and employee-related costs and your expectations there going forward. Stéphane Rambaud-Measson - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.: Overall, we don't see much impact. Well, there's been, of course, the tariff impact that we've been discussing. It has been – that's caused a drag on our numbers, but we have pocket of areas where we have a little stretch on resources, such as, for example, Eastern Europe, which is where the economy is very active right now, but we don't see a big increase of wages. We are helped by some currency changes. Also in China, I mean, the money has been slightly devaluated compared to the U.S. dollar, so it is compensating for some wage increases. So, overall, we don't see big changes. Pat, maybe you want to comment?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

No, I would say overall, I think our – the numbers would indicate that we have – margins are pretty fairly consistent and we're executing where we think we need to be with some of these discrete items obviously impacting.

Jason A. Rodgers - Great Lakes Review

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we have Matt Brooklier of Buckingham Research. Please go ahead.

Matthew Brooklier - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Hey, thanks and good morning.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hey.

Matthew Brooklier - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

So, a question, I think you talked a little bit to it, but the revenue guidance for the year was taken up. I was just hoping for maybe a little bit more color in terms of what's contributing to that. Is it more Freight? Is it also Transit? Just trying to get a sense for what's picking up from a momentum perspective.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah, I think it's both, Matt. We're in a nice position that we have almost record backlogs in both segments. And as Stéphane says, we deliver, for instance, these trains out of the UK, that's the revenue recognition milestone allows you to book revenue for those projects. So, those on a Transit side, as we start to implement the projects and move more into manufacturing delivery, revenues pick up. And on the Freight side, it's more short-term 6-month, 9-month type of turnaround, and with the increased demand, we're seeing some increased revenue opportunities.

Matthew Brooklier - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Helpful. And then can you remind me on within your OE business for railcars, specifically in supply and components. Does it matter what type of car is getting built, i.e. tank versus freight cars? Do you have about the same amount of content on each? Or is there a difference?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

If you look on a broad-basis across the industry, it really doesn't matter. We're pretty agnostic. We do have a couple of specialty areas like the hatch and gate business that we bought from ATP. From ATP, we can supply hatches and gates, which is an incremental add to grain cars for instance. So, frac cars for sand and things like that. But in general, the average is about the same across the industry. So, we're just happy with the pickup.

Matthew Brooklier - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. That's what I thought; just wanted to confirm. And then, last one for me, there's talk of – or announcements around precision railroading efforts more of the Class 1 rails are looking to undergo and go through this process. I'm just curious to hear your thoughts on, is this a potential headwind this cycle, is it more of a headwind, on – if so, on the locomotive side versus the freight car side? How are you thinking about these initiatives that the Class 1 rails have announced?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. So, thanks for asking the question, Matt, because I think if nobody asked that, I'd have been very disappointed. There's so much talk about precision railroading, precision scheduling. Our view is this: we're in place fundamentally to serve our customers and any improvements, just like for PTC, just like down the road for semi-automation, automation, any efficiency improvements that result in a rail network are good for us. It increases the capability for the Class 1s to improve their throughput that hopefully increases the opportunity to serve their customers. So, I think the discussion is ongoing, it means different things to different people. I think the Class 1s are trying to sort it out, what it means for them, specifically case-by-case. But, we're obviously watching. We're listening. We're trying to interact as much as possible with our customers to understand where and how we can serve them and fit into that ultimate solution to provide better throughput and better productivity and efficiency. And I see it as a good thing in the industry. So, I think it's not different for that matter on the Transit side, where you can increase overall efficiency in a Transit operation like New York City Transit. There's been so much discussion from the Governor on down, any opportunity to increase performance of a rail system is good for us.

Matthew Brooklier - The Buckingham Research Group, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Good to hear. Appreciate the time.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question we have will come from Scott Group of Wolfe Research.

Scott H. Group - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Hey, thanks. Morning guys.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hi, Scott.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hi.

Scott H. Group - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

So, I wanted to just go back to the margin guidance, it's just not entirely clear to me. So, going from 12.6% in the third to give or take 14% in the fourth to get to the 13% for the year. How – is the big delta just that these contract issues are now behind us? Are they partially behind us in the fourth? Are they fully behind us in the fourth? I just want to try and get a sense of, if they're fully behind us, is 14% in the fourth quarter, a good run rate for 2019? Maybe they're only partially behind us, so maybe the real run rate for 2019 is even better than 14%. I'm just trying to get a little bit better understanding here.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

All right. So, just speaking only to Q4, I mean, I think you're right on the issue is that – is as you have these contracts are partially behind us, they're starting to come out and then we'll have a more – we think we'll have a more typical fourth quarter results, spares orders and other – in other business product mix that will improve that margin. So, in terms of 2019, really don't want to talk too much about that we – it's not our time to talk about guidance right now.

Scott H. Group - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Sure. Perfect.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

The fourth quarter is a good indication of the run rate.

Scott H. Group - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Okay. Helpful. And then, as we think about the backlog, so it came down a little bit more on the one-year backlog than the multi-year backlog, if I look third quarter versus second quarter? Is there one that's a better want to look at? Is there one that tends to lead the other, the one year versus the multi-year? I'm just trying to understand, which is the better one to look at?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

The one year is – you can get some discrete items that can really make that number move and the Freight business, which is a very short-cycle like backlog, it's not the long multi-year large contract value type order process like you have in Transit. You just don't have it in Freight. And so, quarter-to-quarter, I think, you can have some variability, but I think it's still kind of historically high compared to the last few – the last three quarters in the last year.

Timothy R. Wesley - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Scott, this is Tim. Just one more comment on backlog in general, remember, that we don't put anything in backlog until we have a signed contract. So, we're winning orders, we're being selected for orders, we're being awarded all the time. But the timing of when we actually put something in backlog is determined by when we sign the contract, which can be months and quarters, sometimes between when we win a project and when we actually book it. Stéphane Rambaud-Measson - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.: And we have won a number of signed contracts, which are not bookable, which will have – they will have call-offs, but we have won the contract already, so we are securing the volume for the long-term, but it's not yet in the backlog.

Unknown Speaker

Analyst

To get the release. Yeah.

Scott H. Group - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Okay. Very helpful. And just one just last real quick thing to clarify. When you guys give the breakdown of PTC and then signaling. The PTC number, the $80 million, give or take in the third quarter, that includes both installation and aftermarket, correct? It's not just the installation, is that right?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Right.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. It's anything associated with PTC per se, Scott.

Scott H. Group - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Okay. Helpful. Thank you, guys.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

The next question we have will come from Willard Milby of Seaport Global Securities.

Willard Milby - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey, good morning, everybody. If we could continue the conversation on margin, not to beat a dead horse here, but as I look at the long-term outlook, since the Analyst Day and in every iteration of the proxy, we've seen the core Wabtec business that planned improvement in the margin call it 100 bps, 110 bps. What gives you confidence that that's still a good improvement target when you look at maybe headwinds from tariffs or other issues? When you talk to the board, what are you telling them, is it planned improvements on the cost side? Is it better business with a better margin coming through in the next year, couple years? Can you talk a little bit about that in the longer-term outlook? Stéphane Rambaud-Measson - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.: I think it's a little bit of everything. I think a lot of effort are made on the cost side, we have a number of restructuring projects, which are ongoing, specifically in the UK. We also are controlling the bid process and looking at the risk profile of projects that we win in a very cautious manner. And we are reducing our exposure to certain types of projects, such as the refurbishment project, specifically the UK project are larger train refurbishment projects, where the risk profile is higher than the normal Transit business, where we are doing equipment supply. And today, in our backlog, actually we have reduced the number of these projects and we plan to flush out of the backlog several of these projects in the coming months and quarters. So, that's one of the driving force to the improvement in margin.

Willard Milby - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. And as I think about the impacts on the tariff side, trying to recoup any kind of cost headwinds there. Have customer conversations gotten more difficult? Or customers are a little more understanding of what's going on and maybe those conversations, maybe you think you can recoup those cost entirely? Can you talk a little bit about what's going on there from a customer point of view?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. The customers normally aren't too approachable relative to recouping cost, but we also pay attention to customer pricing policies and practices. So, we try to mirror those folks in their approach where we can...

Willard Milby - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. I appreciate the time. Thanks.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Timothy R. Wesley - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And next we have Steve Barger of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Hey, good morning. Thanks for getting me in.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Hey, Steve.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Ray, hey, since you wanted to talk about precision railroading, and I don't cover the Class Is, I'll follow-up on your comment that an increase in rail performance is good for WAB. Can you tell me specifically how it's good, because presumably it means less new equipment, so what is the positive offset that allows Wabtec to benefit?

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. So, it may mean less new equipment over a long-haul, Steve, but if you look what's going on today, there's a lot of, first of all, infrastructure adjustments that have to be made. As you know, we're in the infrastructure business, there's a lot of adjustments that have to be made to equipment. Do you overhaul? Do you buy new? Do you specialize in certain types of equipment? Who picks up the – what's not changing is the overall demand.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, as long as the demand is going up and our ability is because of our position in technology and that's really the key for us is we're technology providers. So to the extent that we can more effectively develop technology to assist the railroads, to be able to support the demand, basically there are opportunities to take freight out of trucks.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

So, I think there's a lot of upside for us in a short, medium and long-term.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. I think Ray has answered the question extremely well, because number one what's good for the industry is good for Wabtec, that's number one; number two, in order to really do precision railroading, it's going to require technology, in our opinion and we are the answer to technology, not only in the Freight, but also in the Transit rail businesses. So, a lot of our focus has always been on the safety, efficiency and the productivity in the railroads. And that's exactly what they're trying to improve. It's not about just taking their capital expense down, it's more than that. It's really being able to compete with trucks and other industries to increase the business over time. And like I said, what's good for the railroads is good for Wabtec.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Understood. So, technology presumably would be good for mix as well?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

That's right.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

And last one for me, industry orders for railcars up a lot year-over-year, which is obviously good for visibility. And when railcar OEMs take orders, they're typically non-cancelable. Even though at times we see them get delayed or modified? My question is on the locomotive business, are those contracts non-cancelable in the same way that we think about railcar orders?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

I think, Steve, from our due diligence, each contract is different, so there's options associated with some of the GE contracts that are basically call options. So, they're not – the customer, obviously, is in force to exercise those options. So, I haven't seen any contracts for base orders that are cancelable. So, there could be, but we haven't seen.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

And we're really not sure.

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah. We haven't seen their contracts that's in the backlog, I don't know exactly what they say at this point.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Well, what we do know is they're way ahead of expectations on new orders. So, I think they're doing pretty well there, in terms of the pickup in their business. It's going to be seen in revenue next year.

Steve Barger - KeyBanc Capital Markets, Inc.

Analyst

Understood. Thank you.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Operator

Next, we have Tim Curro of Value Holdings. Please go ahead.

Timothy Curro - Value Holdings, L.P.

Analyst

Hi. Will you please talk about the financial risk that we face as a result of losing the challenge related to the Siemens PTC patent? Have they sued for a certain amount?

Patrick David Dugan - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Yeah, we really don't comment on litigation at all and so we hate – just don't have a comment on litigation.

Timothy Curro - Value Holdings, L.P.

Analyst

Got it. Thank you.

Raymond T. Betler - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

I'm showing no further questions at this time. We'll go ahead and conclude today's question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference call back to Mr. Tim Wesley for any closing remarks. Sir?

Timothy R. Wesley - Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.

Management

Okay. Thanks, Mike, and thanks everybody for joining us on the call. We look forward to talking to you again soon or perhaps seeing you at a conference. Take care. Have a good day. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And we thank you also, sir and to the rest of the management team for your time also. Again, the conference call is now concluded. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. At this time, you may disconnect your lines. Thank you, take care and have a great day, everyone.