REVENUE at Global Railway Industries Ltd for the year to December 31 2004 was C$34·7m, up 34% from 2003. This includes C$4·8m from Youngtown, Ohio, based YSD Industries Inc, which was purchased in April 2004.
Restructuring of YSD continued into the first quarter of 2005, with an anticipated loss of C$300000. Global expects YSD to start generating profits when new equipment is fully operational in the second quarter. In March the company announced two contracts to supply boxcar doors worth a total of US$4m, to be delivered from July.
Global said that 2005 had started ’very strong’, with the combined sales and sales backlog amounting to over C$27m by the end of March. Spending by the North America railways and transit authorities ’continues to show strength’.
On April 12 Global announced the relocation of its Rafna Industries operation from Baie D’Urfe in Québec to Berwick, Pennsylvania, where Rafna branded road-rail equipment will be manufactured by Global’s signalling and track component subsidiary G&B Specialties Inc in a recently-completed 3250m2 building adjacent to the existing factory. Global CEO Mike Kohut said ’combining the manufacturing into one facility allows G&B to optimise its production planning and mitigate the seasonal factors associated with the rail gear market.’
