Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles facts for kids

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Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, S.A.

Type	Sociedad Anónima
Traded as	BMAD: CAF
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1917 (Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles)
Headquarters	Beasain, Basque Country, Spain
Number of locations	11 factories, including: Beasain (Basque Country) Zaragoza (Aragon) Irún (Basque Country) Linares (Andalusia) Hortolandia (Brazil) Huehuetoca (Mexico) Elmira, New York (US) Bagnères-de-Bigorre (France)
Key people	Jose María Baztarrica Garijo, Andrés Arizkorreta (Chief Executive Officer and Chairman)
Products	Design, manufacture, maintenance and supply of equipment and components for railway systems
Revenue	€2.943 billion (2021)
Operating income	€165 million (2021)
Net income	€89 million (2021)
Total assets	€4.269 billion (2021)
Total equity	€740.4 million (2021)
Owner	Public; Employees via Cartera Social S.A. (25%); Kutxabank (14%)
Number of employees	13,284(2021)

Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Adtranz–CAF EMU built by CAF and Adtranz

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (also known as Grupo CAF) is a Spanish company. It makes many different types of railway vehicles and equipment. They also make buses through a company they own called Solaris Bus & Coach.

CAF is based in Beasain, in the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. Over the years, CAF has grown a lot. They now make almost every kind of rail vehicle you can imagine.

CAF has provided trains and other railway equipment to cities and countries all over the world. You can find their vehicles in Europe, the US, South America, Asia, Australia, and North Africa.

History
Subsidiaries
Political Activity
Rolling Stock
See also

History

Bucharest Metro trains, built by CAF between 2013 and 2014

The name CAF used to be a short form for Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles. It also stood for Construcciones y Auxiliar de Feres.

Early Beginnings

In 1860, three people named Domingo Goitia, Martín Usabiaga, and José Francisco Arana started a company. They mainly worked with iron, melting it down and shaping it.

Later, in 1892, Francisco de Goitia (Domingo Goitia's son) joined with the Marquess of Urquijo. They created a new company called La Maquinista Guipuzcoana. This company focused on making machinery and building parts for railway vehicles.

In 1898, this company opened its factory in Beasain, Gipuzkoa. In 1905, its name changed to Fábrica de Vagones de Beasain (FVB), which means "Beasain Wagon Factory."

Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles is Founded

The company Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) was officially started in 1917. It specialized in making freight cars, which are wagons used to carry goods on trains. At that time, it had 1,600 employees.

In 1940, CAF opened another factory in Irun. This was because they needed to expand after the Spanish Civil War. CAF helped rebuild Spain's railway system.

In 1954, CAF took over another company called Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) from Zaragoza. MMC was very good at making long-distance trains and subway trains.

Since 1958, CAF has made its Beasain factory bigger and more modern. They also started making all kinds of railway vehicles. To help with this, in 1969, CAF created its Research and Development Unit. This helped the company become more competitive and focus on creating its own technology.

The Company Becomes Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

In 1971, the original Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) joined with Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC). This is when the company got its current name: Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.

Since the early 1990s, CAF started working internationally. In the early 2000s, CAF supplied high-speed trains to the Spanish railway company RENFE. In 2005, they sent high-speed trains to another country for the first time, which was Turkey.

In 2018, CAF bought the Polish bus company Solaris. They also acquired some train designs from other companies like Bombardier Transportation and Alstom. This happened because of rules from the European Commission's competition authority.

Subsidiaries

A subsidiary is a company that is owned or controlled by a larger company. CAF has several subsidiaries around the world.

CAF U.S.A. is a company fully owned by CAF. It was started in 1998 and is based in Elmira, New York. This company makes railway vehicles for the North American market. They have a factory in Elmira that CAF bought in 2000.

In 2019, CAF announced that it bought a Swedish company called Euromaint. This happened after CAF won contracts to supply trains to railway networks in Belgium and England in 2017.

CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd. is CAF's company in the United Kingdom. Their factory is located at Celtic Springs Business Park, near Newport, Wales. This factory was built with help from the Welsh Government. The Newport factory has built trains for companies like Transport for Wales Rail and Arriva Rail North.

Political Activity

During the 2019 United Kingdom general election, CAF Rail UK Limited made a donation of £50,000 to the Conservative Party. This is a way for companies to support political parties.

Rolling Stock

CAF makes many different types of trains and railway vehicles. Here are some examples:

EMU and DMU

Renfe Operadora Class 121

Oaris
Civity
Civia
AM class EMU, Auckland
VR Class Sm4
MTR Adtranz-CAF EMU

Locomotives

Class 250
Class 252

For FEVE (now part of Renfe Operadora):

Electro-diesel locomotive Class 1900
Class 2600 DMU
Class 2700 DMU
Class 2900 DMU

For Euskotren:

UT200
UT300
UT900
UT950
UT3500

Metro Trains

For Madrid:

Class 3000
Class 5000
Class 8000

For Barcelona:

Class 5000

Class 5000
Class 6000

For Helsinki:

M300

For Bucharest:

For Amsterdam:

Metromaterieel S3/M4
Metromaterieel M7/M8

Trams

Urbos 1 (Bilbao Tram)
Urbos 2 (Vélez-Málaga, Vitoria, and Seville Metro)
Urbos 3 (Zaragoza, Granada, Málaga, and Cádiz trams)

Trains Outside Spain

Algiers Metro

Heathrow Express Class 332

Tren de la Costa unit acquired in 1995

Algeria: DMUs
Argentina: Trains for Tren de la Costa
Australia: NSW TrainLink Regional Train Project
Brazil: CPTM EMUs and São Paulo Metrô
Ireland: Mark 4 coaches for Iarnród Éireann
UK: British Rail Mark 5 (Caledonian Sleeper)
UK: British Rail Class 331 (Northern Trains)
UK: British Rail Class 332 in partnership with Siemens (Heathrow Express)
US: Viewliner II (Amtrak)

Newport Factory, South Wales, UK

British Rail Class 195 Civity, a train type made at the CAF factory in Newport, Wales

CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd announced in 2017 that its UK factory would be in Newport. This factory has several confirmed projects for the UK. The site received support from the Welsh Government.

UK: British Rail Class 195 (Northern Trains)
UK: British Rail Class 196 (West Midlands Trains)
UK: British Rail Class 197 (Transport for Wales)