China: Full production of wheelsets is expected to begin in April or May at Datong ABC Castings Co Ltd, a joint venture between ABC Rail Products Corp of the USA and the Ministry of Railways. Construction of the facility followed the signature of a joint venture agreement in March 1996.
Metalastik Vibration Control Systems of Great Britain has opened an Asia Pacific sales office in Hong Kong, trading as Dunlop Metalastik Asia Pacific.
Finland: Transtech has completed employee negotiations on the restructuring of its operations to bring its workforce down to 350 and achieve an operating profit this year, including 135 redundancies at its Otanmäki and Oulu sites. Expecting few major contracts to add to its current FM650m order book that includes 42 InterCity coaches for VR Ltd, Rautaruukki’s rolling stock arm is also considering the sale of its Taivalkoski works.
Germany: Bombardier Inc of Canada announced on February 2 that it has completed the purchase of Deutsche Waggonbau AG from a group of institutional investors advised by Advent International Corp. The transaction included DWA’s subsidiary Vevey Technologies of Switzerland, its 73% stake in Czech wagon builder Vagónka Cesk
