Profit Skyrockets at GE’s Rail Equipment Division

Locomotive maker GE Transportation, part of General Electric, increased revenue 45 percent in 2011 to $4.9 billion on rising demand for equipment and services.

The company’s annual profit skyrocketed 140 percent to $757 million, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars to expand and modernize U.S. plants. For the fourth quarter, GE Transportation net profit shot up 210 percent to $226 million on a 43 percent increase in revenue to $1.5 million, the company said.

Revenue and profits surged despite a decline in equipment orders — 11 percent in the quarter and 7 percent for the year — because of a multi-year order in 2010.

“We are well-positioned to help our customers succeed and to capitalize on growth opportunities in 2012,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO.

The GE division, which also manufactures mining equipment and marine engines, added 2,400 U.S. jobs in 2011, according to a GE corporate blog post.

The transportation unit outperformed the company as a whole in terms of growth. General Electric’s annual net profit dropped 19 percent to $14.4 billion. The industrial giant’s total annual revenue dropped 2 percent to $147.3 billion.

-- Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @wbcassidy_joc.