Roechling Industrial Mount Pleasant LP plans to expand its plant in East Huntingdon, Pa., to fabricate parts for a new Amtrak Airo train car project.
The company expects to add to its 34,000-square-foot plant by fall. Roechling had already planned to expand the plant but now will more than double the space there, according to Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. in Greensburg, Pa.
WCIDC also noted that Roechling recently closed on a $319,500 deal for a 6-acre plot adjacent to the building to develop in three to five years. That deal had been in the works for eight months.
Craig Critchfield, Roechling Machined Plastics general manager, said in a WCIDC news release: "It's an exciting time for Roechling. Not only does this purchase put us on a trajectory to expand our facilities and eventually add about 40 jobs … we've also successfully bid the Siemens Airo project and are going to be hiring several employees in 2023. The Airo project is why we revised our expansion plans — we needed more space."
The Roechling facility employs about 62 now.
Amtrak awarded the train car contract last month to Siemens USA, which in turn contracted with Roechling. Local media reported the East Huntingdon plant will finish and assemble products begun at Roechling's Cleveland plant, such as ceilings and door motor cases, and Siemens will build the train cars.
Roechling machines components using computer numerically controlled equipment, supplying parts for light rail vehicles, food-processing and construction equipment and oil-filled transformers.
Roechling is part of Röchling SE & Co. KG of Mannheim, Germany, a 201-year-old company that started out in steel but sold those interests in 2004 to focus on engineering plastics. Its industrial division produces semi-finished products such as profiles, sheets and tubes as well as machined parts.
The company also has two other divisions — automotive and medical. Together, the three units employ about 11,250 and generated 2021 sales of 2.2 billion euros ($2.39 billion).
It has a presence in 25 countries, with more than 90 locations including injection molding, extrusion, extrusion blow molding and vacuum forming operations.