The car producer’s shares went up to $19.76 by noon, a jump of more than 9%, after rising as much as 13%. The gain was the company’s biggest since May 2012.

The 5500 orders booked after June 30 included about 4000 rebuilt coal cars to serve the eastern coal market.

The order helped FreightCar America to counter the $3.4 million net loss it had just reported after the US markets closed August 2.

The company delivered 710 railcars in the second quarter, including 160 new railcars, 200 leased railcars and 350 rebuilt railcars. That result was versus 2786 railcars delivered in the second quarter of 2012 and 1073 railcars delivered in the previous 2013 quarter.

“The quarter was disappointing relative to where street expectations were, but the orders that they received post-quarter is why you’re seeing a strength in the stock today,” Stephens analyst Justin Long told Bloomberg.

The company said in its earnings call that it had turned to its other production application arms as it looked ahead.

“Given the ongoing weakness in our traditional freight railcar market, we continue to focus on the diversification of our product offerings, as exemplified by the successful startup of the Shoals, Alabama facility to produce non-coal cars and the improving returns from our services business this quarter,” CEO Ed Whalen said.

“We remain vigilant in managing our costs and believe that execution against the factors that are within our control will position us well for the future.”

FreightCar America ended the second quarter with revenues of $47.1 million and a net loss of $3.4 million. For the same quarter in 2012, the company reported revenues of $181.2 million and net income of $5.6 million.

In the first quarter of this year, revenues were $87.6 million with a net loss of $2.6 million.