Nippon Sharyo Ltd. Opens First American Railcar Manufacturing Plant
July 19, 2012 at 07:35 am
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Nippon Sharyo Ltd. opened its first American railcar manufacturing plant. According to the company, the new factory will employ 250 workers by the end of next year and create additional jobs throughout the company's American supply-chain. Nippon Sharyo has already identified more than 200 potential suppliers and vendors in the Midwest region alone. Deputy Federal Railroad Administrator Karen Hedlund attended the opening. In opening the Northern Illinois plant, Nippon Sharyo is fulfilling a commitment made to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in 2009 to establish U.S. manufacturing operations in order to meet eligibility requirements of the U.S. Department of Transportation's 'Buy America' program. Nippon Sharyo invested $50 million in the Rochelle facility. During the plant's construction, employment ranged from 50 to 120 building and trades workers at a time. The facility has the capability to produce 120 new passenger cars annually, and its first orders include commuter rail cars for service in Illinois, California, Virginia, and Ontario.
NIPPON SHARYO,LTD. is a Japan-based company mainly provides railway vehicles, transportation equipment and steel structures, construction machinery, engineering, and other manufacturing, construction, sales and incidental services. The Company operates through four business segments. The Railway Vehicle segment manufactures and sells railway vehicles such as electric trains and railcars. The Transportation Equipment and Steel Structure segment manufactures and sells transportation equipment such as wagons, tank trucks and large land vehicles, and manufactures, installs and sells road bridges and railway bridges. The Construction Machinery segment manufactures and sells pile driving machines, portable diesel generators, emergency power generators and others. The Engineering segment manufactures and sells vehicle inspection equipment, farming plants, and paper-related equipment. The Company also manufactures and sells laser processing machines, railway goods, and rents real estate.