Vossloh´s locomotive business steaming ahead of budget
The Vossloh Group´s locomotive business is easily ahead of budget in the new year. In January 2003 alone, Kiel-based Vossloh Schienenfahrzeugtechnik GmbH booked orders worth over €70 million for more than 40 new locomotives. Included inthe tally is one from German Rail (DB AG) which, for the first time since 1976, has placed an order for new diesel-powered locomotives. "Half of those ordered were unbudgeted," emphasized Vossloh AG´s CEO Burkhard Schuchmann on the occasion today of the handover of two new G 1700 locomotives to Connex Verkehrs GmbH.Schuchmann called the development of the Kiel-based Vossloh company the very paradigm of a success story. "In the first full fiscal year after taking over the company from Siemens, the number of delivered locomotives was 22. In the following year 2000, the number had more than doubled to 46 and this year, the company is expecting to ship out 122 locomotives, a sharp rise from the 98 last year," calculated Schuchmann. Demand from abroad has, in particular, proved very encouraging. Vossloh´s target is for the Kiel facility to build annually some 130 to 150 locomotives by 2010.
Back in fiscal 1999, sales by Vossloh Schienenfahrzeugtechnik GmbH (VSFT) had totaled some €57 million, these revenues soaring to around €172 million in 2002. The target for 2003 is sales of a good €200 million. "As to the 2004 and 2005 percentage growth, we reckon with moderate single-digit sales gains, with EBIT showing a streep rise," forecast Schuchmann.
The CEO also mentioned that in the course of the past years VSFT had graduated into Europe´s premier diesel locomotive builder, a position which a giant 3000-kW locomotive (also suitable for pulling passenger trains) will help expand.
Kiel/Werdohl, January 30, 2003
For more information contact:
Werner Andree, Vossloh AG, phone: (+49-2392) 52407