Corus announced on June 15 that it will invest £20m in its Scunthorpe steelworks in the UK. Addition of a second degassing unit and a third ladle furnace will increase production of rail bloom to 500000 tonnes a year. All bloom for the company’s rail mills at Workington and Hayange will be produced at Scunthorpe from 2006.
Bharat Earth Movers of India is to produce stainless steel air-conditioned metro rolling stock under a co-operation agreement with Rotem of South Korea.
Fare collection supplier Cubic Transportation Systems has set up a subsidiary company in China to be known as Cubic Transportation Systems (Beijing) Co Ltd.
Visual Simulation Technologies Ltd and CCL have formed a strategic alliance called Rail Simulation Solutions to design, supply and manage cab simulators for driver training.
India’s Rail Wheel Factory in Bangalore is to increase its production capacity to 115000 wheels and 50000 axles a year.
Voronezh Aircraft Co is planning to set up a plant to manufacture aluminium-bodied passenger coaches and freight wagons for Russian Railways.
Faiveley reports an operating margin of 9·2% on its rail business in 2003-04 thanks to contracts in Germany and the UK. More than 80% of the company’s €312m turnover is related to the rail business.
Orders at MTU Friedrichshafen were up slightly at €1·3bn for the 2003 financial year. The Industrial Vehicles division saw strong growth, with ’on-going high sales’ in the rail sector.
Pfleiderer AG has announced pre-tax earnings of €11·3m for 2003. Sales at the Track Systems division rose 20% to €129·7m.
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