American Commercial Lines Inc. (1324479) SEC Filing 10-Q Quarterly report for the period ending Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Exhibit 99.1

American Commercial Lines Announces Third Quarter Results

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN, October 28, 2009 — American Commercial Lines Inc. (NASDAQ: ACLI) (“ACL” or the “Company”) today announced results for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2009.

Revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 were $216.0 million, a 31.1% decrease compared with $313.7 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. The decrease in revenue was primarily due to changes in the mix of commodities shipped by our customers in the respective quarters into lower revenue commodities and to lower volume in the current year. The impact of lower fuel prices which contractually is passed through to our customers in the current year quarter also contributed to the decline in revenue and was partially offset by the increase in manufacturing segment’s revenues in the quarter. For the quarter ended September 30, 2009, the Company’s net loss was $12.2 million or $0.96 per diluted share, compared to net income of $18.3 million or $1.44 per diluted share for the comparable quarter of 2008. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (“EBITDA”) for the third quarter of 2009 was $22.4 million, with an EBITDA margin of 10.4%, compared to $49.6 million for the third quarter of 2008 with an EBITDA margin of 15.8%. The attachment to this press release reconciles net income to EBITDA.

Results for the quarter ended September 30, 2009 were impacted by three significant non-comparable charges: (i) after-tax debt retirement expenses of $11.2 million or $0.88 per diluted share related to the Company’s third quarter debt refinancing, (ii) an after-tax charge of $2.8 million or $0.22 per diluted share related to an impairment charge on the intangible assets of the Company’s Summit engineering business and (iii) an after-tax charge of $1.5 million or $0.11 per diluted share related to a customer contract dispute in its manufacturing segment. In the third quarter 2009, though average outstanding debt declined from the prior year’s third quarter, after-tax interest expenses were $2.0 million higher, negatively impacting the quarter by $0.16 per diluted share. The current quarter also benefitted from higher after-tax net gains from asset management actions of $7.7 million or $0.61 per diluted share.

Commenting on results, Michael P. Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We have not seen a recovery in our most profitable markets, and we have been negatively impacted by the late grain harvest, which deferred any anticipated benefit from the harvest activity to the fourth quarter and early 2010. We continue to aggressively manage all of our costs, having completed additional reductions in force both at the shipyard and through our transportation operations realignment during the third quarter. We have now reduced total annualized salaried compensation costs by approximately $25 million since May 2008, establishing a more efficient organizational structure through the recent realignment of our barging operations. Additionally, we have reduced our shipyard production headcount by over 10% in the quarter and 30% overall, right sizing the manufacturing workforce. We have succeeded in producing positive cash flow and EBITDA for the quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2009 and have continued to judiciously manage our capital expenditures to position us for improved performance when the transportation markets begin to recover.”

Revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 were $637.5 million, a 29.7% decrease compared with $906.9 million for the same period during 2008. Transportation revenues declined by