Over past years, worldwide railway operators have been challenged more and more with higher demands. Urbanization, increasing mobility and higher standards on safety and sustainability have led to a more demanding playing field. At the same time, investments are declining. Mark de Vries, CEO of the competence centre Track Solutions at voestalpine Railway Systems, a subsidiary of voestalpine Railway Systems, recognizes these challenges and explains more in an interview with Global Railway Review.

The voestalpine Metal Engineering Division produces high-grade steels at its site in Donawitz, for processing into special rails for railway infrastructure, premium wires for the automotive industry, and high-quality seamless tubes for oil & gas exploration. The start-up of a new, fully automated continuous caster will allow the Group to further increase the quality of the steel grades, which are used in the manufacture of highly advanced products. The state-of-the-art facility represents an investment volume of around EUR 90 million and has an annual production capacity of one million tons.

voestalpine Railway Systems is the global market leader for complete railway infrastructure systems, including rails, turnouts, and digital signaling technology. With the acquisition of a turnout plant in France and new shareholdings in China and Argentina, the Group is expanding its international production capacities in this area. It has even established the first Chinese production facility for turnout monitoring systems. Progressive urbanization, especially in Asia, as well as European efforts to combat climate change mean solid market forecasts for the rail sector in the years ahead.

Dear suppliers,

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voestalpine VAE GmbH is now voestalpine Railway Systems GmbH. In 2018, the bundeling of our railway infrastructure competences (high-tech turnouts, high-quality rails and intelligent, tailor-made signaling solutions) under the joint "Railway Systems" brand was implemented.

After two successful years as a global provider of complete and innovative railway infrastructure systems, voestalpine Railway Systems GmbH is now founded. We are looking forward to a great future!