Rail supplier news from Duos Technologies, Bombardier, Alstom and Predikto (May 11)

Duos Technologies Group Inc. has appointed John Giles and Blair Fonda to its board. Giles, who currently serves as executive chairman of Central Maine and Quebec Railway, previously was chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer at CSX, as well as chief executive officer of Florida East Coast Railway and RailAmerica Inc. His experience in leading acquisition teams as part of Fortress Investment Group will be "of particular benefit" to Duos Technology as it executes a growth plan, company officials said in a press release. Giles' rail industry career spans 46 years. Fonda previously served as chief financial officer of Emergent Financial Partners, a national accounting and consulting firm.

Bombardier reported a first-quarter net loss of $31 million, or minus 2 cents per diluted share, versus $138 million, or minus 7 cents per diluted share, in the same period last year. Q1 2017 revenue fell 9 percent to $3.6 billion compared with a year ago. However, revenue for Bombardier Transportation, the company's rail division, rose 2 percent to $1.9 billion. During the quarter, Bombardier Transportation obtained significant orders in France, Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia.

Between April 2016 and March 2017, Alstom received 10 billion euros worth of orders, marking a 6 percent decrease compared with the previous fiscal year. The company's backlog grew 15 percent year over year to a record 34.8 billion euros. Orders for 2016 included a contract with Amtrak for the next generation of Avelia high-speed trains, as well as a contract for the extension of Dubai Metro's Red Line. Alstom's sales rose 6 percent to 7.3 billion euros compared with 6.9 billion euros last year. For fiscal-year 2016, the company reported net income of 289 million euros versus 3 billion euros in the previous year. Alstom in November 2015 sold its energy business to GE, which contributed to the larger income in the prior fiscal year.

Technology research company Gartner Inc. has included Predikto in its "Cool Vendors in Internet of Things Analytics 2017" report, which was published late last month. The report profiles "innovative vendors" in Internet of Things (IoT) analytics and focuses on  device diagnostics, repair and maintenance. Predikto uses machine learning algorithm development software to help improve equipment uptime. The company's products include Predikto Maintain, software that uses existing data to identify and predict failing rail-car wheels.