 | |
| Company type | Sociedad Anónima |
|---|---|
| BMAD: CAF | |
| ISIN | ES0121975009  |
| Industry | Manufacturing |
| Founded | 1917 (Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) |
| Headquarters | Beasain,Basque Country (autonomous community),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) Newport, South Wales (UK) |
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)[1] |
| €165 million(2021)[1] | |
| €89 million(2021)[1] | |
| Total assets | €4.269 billion(2021)[1] |
| Total equity | €740.4 million(2021)[1] |
| Owner | Public;Employees via Cartera Social S.A. (25%);Kutxabank (14%)[2] |
Number of employees | 13,284(2021)[1] |
| Website | cafmobility.com |
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (Grupo CAF,lit. 'Construction and Other Railway Services') is a Spanish publicly listed company which manufactures railway vehicles and equipment and buses through itsSolaris Bus & Coach subsidiary. It is based inBeasain,Basque Autonomous Community,Spain. Equipment manufactured by Grupo CAF includeslight rail vehicles,rapid transit trains,railroad cars andlocomotives, as well asvariable gauge axles that can be fitted on any[citation needed] existing truck orbogie.
Over the 20 years from the early 1990s, CAF benefited from the rail investment boom in its home market in Spain to become a world player with a broad technical capability, able to manufacture almost any type of rail vehicle.[3] CAF has supplied railway rolling stock to a number of majorurban transit operators around Europe, the US, South America, East Asia, India, Australia and North Africa.
CAF was an acronym for the earlier name ofCompañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, as well as forConstrucciones y Auxiliar de Feres.
In 1860, Domingo Goitia, Martín Usabiaga and José Francisco Arana established this company, whose main activity was puddling furnaces and cylinder rolling.[4]
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In 1892, Francisco de Goitia (Domingo Goitia's son and heir) joined theMarquess of Urquijo to set upLa Maquinista Guipuzcoana, whose main activity was the operation of machinery and the forging and construction of railway rolling stock.
In 1898, it set up its plant inBeasain,Gipuzkoa. In 1905 it changed its name toFábrica de Vagones de Beasain (FVB).
Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) was founded in 1917,[5] specializing in freight car production and with a total of 1,600 employees.
In 1940, the Irun factory was set up, following the expansion of activity after the Spanish Civil War (CAF took part in reconstructing the Spanish rail fleet).
In 1954, CAF took overMaterial Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) fromZaragoza (Aragon), a company with extensive experience in manufacturing long-distance and subway trains.
Since 1958, the company has modernized and enlarged its Beasain plant and expanded its activity to include all kinds of rolling stock. In line with this, in 1969 CAF created itsResearch and Development Unit, which increased the company's competitiveness and intensified the focus on in-house technology.
In 1971, the existing Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) merged with Material Móvil y Construcciones (MMC) and the company adopted its current nameConstrucciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.
Since the early 1990s, CAF has also been active internationally. In the early 2000s, CAF supplied high-speed trains to the SpanishRENFE and in 2005, high-speed trains were exported for the first time (to Türkiye).[6]
In 2018, CAF took over the Polish bus manufacturer Solaris.[7] The company also acquired theTalent 3 platform from competitorBombardier Transportation in 2022, as well as theCoradia Polyvalent platform and the plant inReichshoffen from train manufacturerAlstom. This was a condition imposed by the European Commission'scompetition authority for the approval of the 2021 takeover ofBombardier Transportation byAlstom.
CAF U.S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of CAF, was incorporated in 1998[8] and is based inElmira, New York. It manufactures rolling stock for the North American market at a plant in Elmira that the company acquired fromADtranz in 2000.[9] The company from Beasain continued its expansion during the third millennium.
On 24 May 2019, it announced the acquisition of the Swedish company Euromaint at a cost of circa €80 million, following other international contracts to supply Flemish and English railway and underground networks in 2017.[10][11]
CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd.[12] is the CAF subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Itsfactory is based at Celtic Springs Business Park, atLlanwern steelworks nearNewport, Wales as a result of an agreement made between CAF and theWelsh Government.[13] The Newport factory has built stock forTransport for Wales,Arriva Rail North, theDocklands Light Railway, and potentiallyHigh Speed 2 if CAF win the bid process. They also donated £150,000 to theConservative Party.[14]
CAF Signalling was fined in 2021 with 1.7 million euros by theSpanish commission on markets and competition because of its participation in acartel with other 7 international companies which colluded in tenders overSpanish rail infrastructure.[15]
During the2019 United Kingdom general election, CAF Rail UK Limited made a donation of £50,000 to theConservative Party.[16]
In 2019, CAF was referred to Spain'sOECD National Contact Point for a violation of theOECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct.[17] As part of the 'TransJerusalem J-Net' consortium with Israeli company Shapir Engineering and Industry, who are on theUnited Nations Human Rights Council list of companies that benefit from theIsraeli occupation of Palestinian territories,[18] CAF won a tender by the IsraeliMinistry of Transport and Road Safety to supply railway equipment and to build, extend and operatelight rail lines from Jerusalem to nearbyIsraeli settlements within theWest Bank.[19]
In 2025, reports byAmnesty International and United Nations rapporteurFrancesca Albanese condemned CAF's involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail project.[20][21] In October 2025, CAF was formally listed by theOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as being a company conducting business in Israeli settlements within the occupied Palestinian territories.[22]
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ForFEVE, now part ofRenfe Operadora:
ForEuskotren:
ForServeis Ferroviaris de Mallorca:
For other operators:
For Madrid:
For Barcelona:
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CAF Rolling Stock U.K. Ltd announced in 2017 its UK factory location was selected as Celtic Business Park atLlanwern steelworks inNewport,Wales.[30] It has at least five confirmed UK projects from 2019 onwards and would have been the construction site for their unsuccessful bid to deliverstock for High Speed 2. The site was funded with support from theWelsh Government Inward Investment Programme.[13]
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Media related toCAF at Wikimedia Commons